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THE  CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF  DANTE 


THE 


CRYPTOGRAPHY 
OF  DANTE 


BY 


WALTER    ARENSBERG 


'Antiquam  exquirite  matrem" 

— vEneid  iii.gd 


NEW  YORK 
ALFRED • A • KNOPF 

MCMXXI 


Copyright  1 9  2  i 

by 

Walter  Arensberg 


Pa 


For  a  lost  and  at  last  recovered  Bella 

the  mother  of  the  divine 

Commedia 


2 
— i 


9 

CO 

I 

m 
c 


PREFACE 


Except  for  the  discussions,  in  various  commentaries,  of 
the  Dxv  in  Purgatorio  xxxiii  and  of  the  acrostic  vom  in  Pur- 
gatorio  xii,  I  know  of  no  recognition  of  the  existence  of  crypto- 
grams in  the  Divina  Commedia.  For  general  information  on 
the  subject  of  cryptography  I  may  refer  to  the  article  on 
Akrostichts  in  Pauly:  Encyclopcedie  der  Classishen  Alter- 
tumswissenschaft;  the  article  on  Acrostic  in  Hastings:  En- 
cyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics;  the  article  on  Ciphers 
in  Rees's  Encyclopcedia;  C.  W.  King:  The  Gnostics  and  Their 
Remains;  Francis  Bacon:  Of  the  Advancement  of  Learning; 
Walter  Begley:  Biblia  Cabalistica;  Is  it  Shakespeare?; 
and  Bacon  s  Nova  Resuscitatio;  and  W.  S.  Booth:  Some 
Acrostic  Signatures  of  Francis  Bacon  and  The  Hidden  Signa- 
tures of  Francesco  Colonna  and  Francis  Bacon.  A  widely 
recognized  authority  which  I  have  been  unable  to  consult 
is  Kryptographik^  by  J.  L.  Kliiber. 

For  general  information  concerning  the  life  and  works  of 
Dante  I  have  consulted  principally,  in  addition  to  the  com- 
mentaries of  the  Divina  Commedia  by  Scartazzini,  Casini, 
Torraca,  Vernon,  Longfellow,  and  Norton,  and  of  the  Vita 
Nuova  by  Witte  and  Scherillo,  the  following  works: 
Boccaccio:  Vita  di  Dante;  Scartazzini:  Dizionario  Critico; 
E.  Moore:  Textual  Criticism  of  the  Divina  Commedia  and 
Studies  in  Dante;  P.  Toynbee:  Dante  Dictionary;  Dante 
Alighieri;  and  Dante  Studies  and  Researches;  E.  G.  Gardner: 
Dante  s  Ten  Heavens  and  Dante  and  the  Mystics;  P.  H.  Wick- 
steed:    Dante  and  Aquinas;    J.  B.  Fletcher:    Dante;    C.  A. 


viii     THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Dinsmore:  Aids  to  the  Study  of  Dante;  R.  T.  Holbrook: 
Dante  and  the  Animal  Kingdom;  Ruggero  della  Torre: 
//  Poeta  Veltro. 

Except  for  della  Torre's  identification  of  the  dxv  and  the 
Veltro  with  Dante  I  know  of  nothing  in  the  literature  on 
Dante  that  relates  to  the  interpretation  of  the  symbolism 
of  the  P'ita  Niiova  and  the  Divina  Commedia  which  I  have 
expressed  in  the  present  volume.  I  agree  with  della  Torre 
in  identifying  the  dxv  and  the  Veltro  with  Dante;  but  my 
reasons  for  making  the  identification  have  little,  if  anything, 
to  do  with  the  reasons  of  della  Torre,  and  I  first  learnt  of  his 
work  when  I  was  nearing  the  completion  of  my  own.  My 
agreement  with  della  Torre  is  limited  to  the  single  detail  of 
this  identification. 

My  identification  of  Beatrice  with  Bella,  the  mother  of 
Dante,  has  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  made  before.  Several 
commentators,  such  as  Scherillo  and  Fletcher,  have  alluded — 
to  quote  the  words  of  Fletcher — to  "Beatrice's  instinctive 
motherliness",  in  the  sense  that  "every  true  maid  is  some- 
thing of  a  mother  to  the  man  she  loves";  and  Scherillo  has 
further  surmised  that  Dante  may  have  transferred  to  his 
characterization  of  Beatrice  certain  qualities  which  he  re- 
membered in  his  own  mother.  A  similar  idea,  but  from  a 
point  of  view  that  is  strictly  limited  to  the  Freudian,  is 
developed  by  Alice  Sperber  in  a  study  oi  Dante's  Unconscious 
Mental  Life,  a  study  which  I  have  not  seen,  but  which,  as  I 
gather  from  the  abstract  in  the  Psychoanalytic  Review,  April, 
1920,  is  "not  concerned  with  the  historical  identity  of  Bea- 
trice or  the  actual  facts  of  her  life." 

The  view  that  Dante,  by  a  process  of  idealization,  may 
have  transferred  certain  qualities  which  he  remembered  in 
his  mother  to  his  characterization  of  someone  else,  to  a 
Beatrice  who  may  or  may  not  be  identified  with  Beatrice 
Portinari,  is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  view,  expressed  in 
the  following  pages,  that  Beatrice  and  Bella,  the  mother  of 
Dante,  are,  by  Dante's  conscious  intention,  identical. 

I  have  found  that  the  Dante  literature  with  which  I 
am  acquainted  is  less  helpful  for  the  interpretation  of  the 


PREFACE  ix 

Divina  Commedia  than  certain  studies  in  religion,  myth,  and 
dream.  I  may  refer  to  J.  G.  Frazer:  The  Golden  Bough  and 
Folk-Lore  in  the  Old  Testament;  J.  E.  Harrison:  Themis; 
Y.  Hirn:  The  Sacred  Shrine;  E.  B.  Tylor:  Primitive  Cul- 
ture; H.  O.  Taylor:  The  Mediaeval  Mind;  J.  Hastings: 
Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics;  S.  Freud:  The  Inter- 
pretation of  Dreams;  C.  G.  Jung:  Psychology  of  the  Uncon- 
cious;  F.  Ricklin:  JVish  Fulfillment  and  Symbolism  in  Fairy 
Tales;  O.  Rank:  The  Myth  of  the  Birth  of  the  Hero;  K.  Abra- 
ham: Dreams  and  Myths;  Hans  Schmidt:  Jona;  E.  de  Faye: 
Introduction  a  I  etude  du  Gnosticisme;  W.  K.  Fleming: 
Mysticism  in  Christianity;  Evelyn  Underhill:  Mysticism; 
.-A.  E.  Waite:  The  Secret  Doctrine  of  Israel;  W.  B.  Smith: 
Ecce  Deus;  and  I.  Myer:  The  ^abbalah. 

For  secretarial  assistance  in  the  collection  of  my  material 
I  am  indebted  to  Miss  Florence  M.  Poast.  To  Mr.  John 
Covert  I  owe  the  suggestion  of  the  possible  cryptographic 
use  of  capital  letters  and  especially  the  discovery  of  the  signa- 
ture in  di  necessita  (p.  S^^).  For  assistance  in  editing  my 
material  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  John  Macy,  and  I  am  further 
indebted  to  Mr.  Macy  for  several  valuable  suggestions  in 
deciphering. 

To  the  memory  of  Dr.  E.  E.  Southard  I  acknowledge  my 
deepest  debt.  His  ideas  as  to  the  oversimplifications  of  the 
Freudian  psychology,  and  especially  as  to  the  pessimism 
inherent  in  the  deterministic  view  of  conduct  which  it  ex- 
presses, helped  to  orient  me  in  a  wood  where  I  was  once  in 
danger  of  losing  my  way.  It  was  in  the  light  of  these  ideas 
that  I  formed  my  belief  that  sex  symbolism  is  not  to  be  inter- 
preted as  symbolizing  sex.  The  sex  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  for  example,  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  a  representa- 
tion of  the  mental  processes^  in  which  the  mind  is  conceived  as 
a  trinity  of  will,  intellect,  and  emotion,  and  which  is  repre- 
sented accordingly  as  a  family,  as  in  the  Trinity  of  the  Chris- 
tian Godhead,  of  father,  son  and  mother.  The  mutual  rela- 
tions of  the  three  members  of  the  family  in  a  drama  involving 
incest,  death,  and  rebirth  are  to  be  understood  as  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  individual  mind  in  conflict  or  in  harmony 


X        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

with  itself.  This  interpretation  of  the  sex  symbolism  not  only 
of  the  Divina  Commedia  and  of  Christian  theology  but  also 
of  myths  and  dreams  in  general  I  will  develop,  together 
with  a  new  definition  of  symbolism,  in  a  volume  now  in 
preparation:  The  Symbolism  oj  the  Divina  Commedia. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     The  General  Evidence       ....  3 

II     Acrostics 23 

III  Signatures 55 

IV  Dxv        115 

V     The  Universal  Form 129 

VI     Symbolic  Guises         167 

VII     The  Seal 223 

VIII     Beatrice 3^3 

IX    Problematic  Aspects 395 

List  of  Cryptograms       ....  467 

Index 4^7 


Chapter  I 
THE  GENERAL   EVIDENCE 


Chapter  I 
THE  GENERAL  EVIDENCE 


THE  Divina  Commedia  contains  a  large  number  of  crypto- 
grams which  have  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  noticed. 
These  cryptograms  have  a  double  value.  First,  they  reveal  a 
hitherto  unsuspected  phase  of  Dante's  literary  method. 
And  second — and  this  is  the  more  important— they  reveal  a 
hitherto  unsuspected  symbolism.  As  an  allegory,  the  Divina 
Commedia  has  a  hidden  as  well  as  a  manifest  meaning;  and 
the  cryptograms  are  the  hidden  proof  of  what  the  hidden 
meaning  is.  They  prove,  indeed,  as  fundamental  in  the 
Divina  Commedia,  the  symbolism  of  an  anthropomorphic 
universe,  in  which  Beatrice  is  to  be  identified  with  Bella,  the 
mother  of  Dante,  conceived  as  an  incarnation  of  the  divine, 
or  universal,  mother,  and  in  which  the  dxv  and  the  Veltro  are 
to  be  identified  with  Dante,  conceived  as  an  incarnation  of 
the  divine,  or  universal,  son. 

A  cryptogram,  or  hidden  writing,  is  a  deliberate  arrange- 
ment of  words,  letters,  numbers,  or  other  signs,  which  is 
intended  to  conceal  as  well  as  to  express  a  meaning.  The 
meaning  of  a  cryptogram  is  concealed  by  a  variety  of  devices, 
such  as,  first,  by  giving  the  signs  employed  a  different  mean- 
ing from  the  meaning  which  they  usually  possess;  and, 
second,  by  arranging  these  signs  in  an  order  which  is 
different  from  the  conventional  order  of  the  language  in 
which  they  are  written.  A  common  synonym  for  "crypto- 
gram" is  "cipher,"  and  the  use  of  this  word  is  significant,  as 
in  various  kinds  of  cabalas,  of  the  substitution  of  letters  by 
numbers.  The  word  is  also  significant  of  the  numerical 
schemes  on  which  the  arrangement  of  letters  in  some  crypto- 

[3] 


4  THK    e^R^P'IOCJ  R  APH  Y    OF    DANTE 

grams  is  based.  Cryptograms  are  of  many  kinds.  Among  the 
cryptograms  which  I  have  discovered  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
are  acrostics,  telestics,  interior  sequences,  anagrams,  irregular 
letter  clusters,  string  ciphers,  and  cabaHstic  spelHng  devices. 

I  am  far  from  assuming  that  the  cryptograms  which  I  have 
discovered  are  all  that  Dante  made.  They  are  so  widely 
scattered  and  so  varied  in  form  that  I  am  convinced  that  I 
have  missed  many.  Nor  do  I  assume  that  all  the  cryptograms 
which  I  am  here  presenting  are  authentic.  A  decipherer  is 
necessarily  to  some  extent  at  the  mercy  of  the  very  ingenuity 
which  the  act  of  deciphering  requires.  For  instance,  he  may 
discover  as  actually  existing  in  the  text  an  unusual  col- 
location of  letters  which  may  be  interpreted  as  a  cryptogram; 
and  he  may  then  assume  that  this  collocation  was  intended 
by  the  author  to  be  so  interpreted,  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  was  purely  accidental.  Or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  collo- 
cation  of  krtf.r.s  was  actually  intended  as  a  cryptogram  by^ 
the  author,  the  decipherer  may  lack  the  ingenuity  to  read  it 
correctly^  as  when,  for  instance,  the  letters  in  question  are 
capable  of  being  rearranged  in  two  waySj  one  intended  by 
the  author  and  one  accidental.  In  such  a  case  of  variant  read- 
ings the  decipherer  may  make  a  wrong  choice. 

The  essential  in  deciphering,  therefore,  is  to  remember 
that  it  is  by  the  author's  intention,  and  by  the  author's 
intention  alone,  that  a  cryptogram  can  be  said  to  exist.  The 
author's  intention  may,  of  course,  not  be  easy  to  prove.  But 
there  are  certain  means  by  which  the  author's  intention  may 
be  indicated.  These  means  may  be  enumerated  as  follows: 
tirst,  hints  in  the  text  that  something  is  being  concealed; 
second,  a  correspondence  between  the  meaning  of  the  crypto- 
gram  and  the  meaning  of  the  text;  third,  the  appearance  of 

cryptograms   in    salient   and    sytninptriral   pnQJfinnQ^  <;nrh    a^ 

the  beginnings  and  the  ends  of  the  various  parts,  chapters, 
cantoSy  or  other  units  of  text;  fourth,  a  repetition  oT^ryptic 
readings  identical  or  similar  in  meaning;  and  htth,  a  repeti- 
tion,  in  various  cryptograms,  of  an  identical  cryptographic 
"frame,"  or  structure. 

In  a  series  of  cryptograms  in  connection  with  which  it  is 


THE    GENERAL    EVIDENCE  5 

possible  to  point,  first,  to  hints  in  the  text,  second,  to  corre- 
spondence between  the  meaning  of  the  cryptograms  and  the 
meaning  of  the  text,  third,  to  the  appearance  of  cryptograms 
in  sahent  and  symmetrical  positions,  fourth,  to  the  repetition 
of  identical  or  similar  cryptographic  readings,  and,  fifth,  to 
the  repetition  of  a  cryptographic  structure,  the  probability 
that  the  cryptograms  were  intended  by  the  author  is  greater 
than  that-  fhpy  were  nof  infenrlprl.  Acknowledging  as  I  do 
the  possibility  of  error  in  deciphering  the  cryptograms  which 
I  shall  present,  I  am  nevertheless  confident  that  they  show, 
as  a  series,  unmistakable  indications  of  intention,  or  design. 

The  announcement  that  the  Divina  Commedia  is  teeming 
with  cryptograms  is  likely,  I  am  aware,  to  be  met  with 
incredulity.  For  there  is  a  common  prejudice  that  crypto- 
grams are  too  trivial  a  form  of  composition  to  have  been 
employed  by  authors  of  works  of  literary  importance.  Some 
justification  for  this  prejudice  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
cryptograms  have  been  "discovered"  where  they  do  not 
really  exist.  Many  of  the  so-called  discoveries  in  the  Shake- 
speare plays,  as,  for  instance,  Donnelly's  Great  Cryptogram^ 
are  cases  in  point.  They  are  not  cryptograms  at  all,,  but 
merely  arbitrary  readings  foisted  into  the  text  by  mistaken 
ingenuity.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  contempt  which  such 
false  readings  have  merited  has  not  been  confined  to  them 
alone,  with  the  result  that  the  whole  subject  of  cryptography 
is  almost  taboo  to  the  academic  student  of  literature.  In 
recent  years,  however,  a  few  investigators  have  done  much 
to  establish  the  importance  of  the  subject  as  an  aspect  of 
literary  art. 

A  glance  at  the  history  of  cryptography  should  dispel  at 
once  any  prejudice  against  the  possible  existence  of  crypto- 
grams in  works  of  literature.  The  subject  has  received  so 
little  attention  in  the  last  century  or  two  that  the  extent  to 
which  cryptograms  have  been  used  in  the  past  and  the 
variety  of  their  forms  are  no  longer  generally  known.  The 
common  opinion  at  present,  indeed,  is  simply  that  crypto- 
graphy is  a  subject  of  importance  only  for  such  practical 
purposes  as  military,  diplomatic,  and  commercial  codes,  and 


6  THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

that  it  has  no  literary  value  whatever.  This  opinion  is  con- 
trary to  the  easily  available  evidence  of  centuries  of  literary 
use  of  cryptograms  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  French, 
and  English. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  the  present  volume,  however, 
to  survey  the  history  of  cryptography.  I  will  confine  myself, 
for  the  historical  background  of  my  research,  to  the  briefest 
reference  to  a  few  established  facts.  Let  me  first  quote  from 
the  article  on  "Akrostichis"  by  E.  Graf  in  Pauly:  Real- 
Encyclopcedie  der  Classischen  Altertumswissenschajt. 

"Den  alteren  sibyllinischen  Oraklen  war  die  A. 
durchgehends  eigen  and  zwar  so,  dass  die  A.  sich  mit 
dam  ersten  Vers  des  Orakels  deckte,  Cic.  de  div.  II,  122 
.  .  .  bei  langeren  Oraklen  fuhr  die  A.  in  zweiten  Vers 
fort,  doch  so,  dass  dessen  Anfang  nicht  mit  einem  Sinn- 
abschnitt  des  Orakels  zusammenfiel.  Zweck  der  A. 
war,  die  Sammlung  vor  Interpolationen  und  Verkiir- 
zungen  zu  schiitzen  ...  In  unserer  Sammlung 
der  sibyllinischen  Orakel  ist  die  einzige  A.  viii,  217-50: 
\7]aov<i  Xpiards  Qeov  vios  (Tcor-qp  aTavpos,  welche  selbst 
wiederum  die  A.  'IX9TS  enthalt  .  .  .  Augustin 
de  civ.  d.  xviii,  23  iibersetzt  sie  ins  Lateinische  mit 
griechischer  A.:  Jesucs  Creistos  Tend  Uios  Soter 
Staurus  .  .  .  Bei  den  Romern  finden  wir  zuerst  die 
A.  'Q.  Ennius  fecit'  in  quibusdam  Ennianis  Cic.  de  div. 
ii,  112;  .  .  .  Der  Grammatiker  Opillius  gab  seinen 
Namen  als  A.  seines  Pinax  (Suet,  de  gramm.  6),  Silius 
Italicus  wahrte  seine  Autorschaft  am  Homerus  latinus 
durch  die  zwei  A.  Italicus — scripsit  am  Anfang  und 
Ende  des  Gedichtes  .  .  .  Die  akrostischen  Argu- 
mente  zu  alien  plautinische  Stiicken  ausser  den  Bacchides 
werden  von  Ritschl  op.  ii,  404  und  Opitz  Lpz.  Stud,  vi 
234.275  in  die  Antoninenzeit,  von  SeyfFert  Philol  xvi, 
4^8  u.  Jahresber.  xlvii,  22  ca.  100  Jahre  nach  Plautus 
Tod  angesetzt.  Commodians  Instuctiones  bestehen 
aus  80  Gedichten  mit  akrostichischer  Inhaltsangabe, 
zum  Teil  verbunden  mit  Telestichis.  Die  A.  des  letzten 
Stiickes  ergiebt,  von  unten  lesen,  Commodianus  men- 
dicus   Christt     .  .     Aldhelmus  leitet    sein    Gedicht 

de  laudxbus  virginum  .  .  .  mit  einer  Praefatio  ein, 
die  den  ersten  Hexameter  als  A.  vorwarts  und  als  Tele- 
stichis riickwarts  gelesen  enthalt;  seine  Ratselsammlung 


THE   GENERAL   EVIDENCE  7 

.  .  .  mit  einem  Prolog,  dessen  A.  und  Telestichis  in 
gleicher  Richtung  den  Vers  Aldhelmus  cecenit  millenis 
versibus  odas  ergiebt." 

Cryptography  has  been  associated  from  ancient  times 
with  serious  religious  works.  There  are  cryptograms  in  the 
Bible,  notably  the  abecedarian  acrostics,  in  which  the  initial 
letters  of  lines  or  sections  are  the  successive  letters  of  the 
alphabet.  The  article  on  "Acrostic"  in  Hastings;  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics  gives  fourteen  examples  in 
Psalms,  Proverbs y  Lamentations ,  and  Nahum.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  is  Psalm  cxix,  the  structure  of  which  is  partly 
visible  and  partly  lost  in  the  English  Bible,  where  we  see  the 
division  of  the  psalm  into  twenty-two  sections,  each  under  a 
letter  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet  and  each  consisting  of  eight 
verses.  In  the  original  each  of  the  eight  verses  of  each 
division  begins  with  the  same  letter,  eight  with  aleph,  eight 
with  beth,  and  so  on.  This  alphabeticism  is  not  meaningless: 
it  is  used,  first,  as  an  aid  to  memorizing^  andj  sernnHj  as  a 
symbol  of  completeness,  '*as  in  Proverbs  xxxi.  10-31,  where 
the  praises  of  virtuous  woman  exhaust  the  alphabet."  And 
an  abecedarian  psalm  in  praise  of  God,  beginning,  as  it  does, 
with  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet  and  ending  with  the  last, 
is  in  effect  a  way  of  signing  God's  name  as  Alpha  and  Omega: 
"I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  ending, 
saith  the  Lord." 

Acrostics  are  found  in  other  religious  works,  Jewish  and 
Christian.  According  to  the  article  on  the  abecedarian  psalms 
and  hymns  in  Pauly's  Real-Encyclopaedie:  "Das  beriihmteste 
Exemplar  aus  der  christlichen  Litteratur  ist  Augustins 
Psalmus  contra  partem  Donati,  gedichtet  393  .  .  .  den  er 
nach  Retract  1,20  fiir  die  ganz  Ungebildeten  verfasst  hat  zum 
Auswendiglernen. ' ' 

The  Bible  contains  many  examples  of  cabala,  one  of  which, 
"the  number  of  the  beast"  in  Revelation,  will  prove  of  par- 
ticular interest  to  us  later.  The  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures by  cryptographic  methods,  especially  cabalistic,  con- 
tinued through  early  and  medieval  Hebrew  and  Christian 
literature.  As  we  shall  see  in  Chapter  IV,  some  knowledge  of 


8  THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

this  cabalistic  literature  is  essential  to  a  correct  interpre- 
tation  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 

A  few  examples  of  the  literary  use  of  cryptograms  in  the 
Renaissance  and  post-Renaissance  will  suffice.  Boccaccio's 
Amorosa  Visione  is  a  remarkable  acrostic  poem  which  we 
shall  have  occasion  later  to  discuss  at  length.  Frangois  Villon 
wrote  his  name  down  the  initials  of  the  third  stanza  of  his 
ballade,  A  S' Amye,  and  he  made  other  acrostic  signatures.  A 
cryptographic  signature  that  was  "  lost "  until  laterdiscovered 
is  contained  in  the  Hypnerotomachia  Poliphili^  published 
anonymously  in  Venice  in  1499.  The  initial  letters  of  the 
chapters  of  the  book,  spell  the  sentence  (in  Latin):  "Brother 
Francesco  Colonna  loved  Polia." 

The  poetry  of  Elizabethan  England  is  full  of  instances  of 
acrostics  and  other  devices  which  range  from  mere  clever 
tricks  in  light  verse  to  the  serious  religious  poem  of  George 
Herbert:  "Our  Life  is  Hid  With  Christ  In  God."  The  poem 
is  as  follows: 

My  words  and  thoughts  do  both  express  this  notion. 
That  Life  hath  with  the  sun  a  double  motion. 
The    first    Is    straight,    and    our    diurnall    friend; 
The    other    Hid,    and    doth    obliquely    bend. 
One    life    is    wrapt    In    flesh,    and    tends    to    earth: 
The  other  winds  towards  Him,  whose  happy  birth 
Taught    me    to    live    here    so    That  still  one  eye 
Should  aim  and  shoot  at  that  which  Is  on  high; 
Quitting     with      daily      labour      all      My     pleasure, 
To      gain       at       harvest       an       eternal       Treasure. 

The  cryptogram  in  this  pnpm  i<;  a  ^n  railed  interior 
sequence.  The  words  to  be  read  in  sequence  are  indicated 
by  being  printed  in  italic:  my  life  is  hid  in  him  that  is  my 
treasure;  these  words  paraphrase  the  sentence  from  the 
Bible  used  in  the  title.  The  meaning  of  Herbert's  cryptogram 
is  important  for  us;  for  just  as  "My  life  is  hid  in  Him,"  so 
the  cryptogram  is  hidden  in  the  text.  Herbert,  as  one  of  the 
"metaphysical"  poets,  was  concerned  with  mystical  mean- 
ings, and  no  reader  who  knows  his  spirit  can  doubt  the 
reverence  or  the  symbolic  use  of  this  verbal  play. 


THE    GENERAL    EVIDENCE  9 

A  common  form  of  cryptogram  in  literature  is  the  anagram, 
and  a  common  form  of  anagram  is  a  pseudonym  made  by 
a  rearrangement  of  the  letters  of  the  real  name.  A  great  man 
whose  name  was  Arouet  le  jeune  is  said  to  have  arranged 
the  letters  of  his  name  and  the  initials  of  the  words  le  jeune 
into  the  name  by  which  the  world  knows  him:  voltaire. 
Notice  that  in  this  anagram  the  u  is  considered  as  v,  and  j 
as  I.  Francois  Rabelais  made  of  his  name  the  anagram  alco- 
FRiBAS  NASiER,  under  which  pseudonym  he  published  some 
of  his  works. 

The  reasons  for  the  use  of  cryptograms  are  not,  I  be- 
lieve, sufficiently  appreciated.  A  signature  or  dedication 
or  any  other  expression  that  an  author  sees  fit  to  attach  to  his 
work  by  the  devices  of  cryptography  is  apt  to  be  regarded, 
if  it  is  acknowledged  to  be  there  at  all,  as  an  example  of 
misspent  ingenuity,  a  bit  of  literary  decoration  of  a  trivial 
character.  Such  an  opinion  ignores  the  profoundly  serious 
motives  which  underlay  the  use  of  cryptograms  in  the  past. 

Among  the  motives  for  the  literary  use  of  cryptograms 
may  be  mentioned,  first,  the  motive  of  prudence.  A  hidden 
signature  or  dedication  may  be  prudential  in  case  the  public 
announcement  of  authorship  or  dedication  would  be 
dangerous.  Such  a  case  exists  in  the  Hypnerotomachia^ 
mentioned  above,  in  which  the  author,  a  monk,  acknowledges 
his  passion  for  a  woman.  Or  it  may  be  prudent  to  hide  the 
meaning  of  a  work  when  the  meaning  is  an  attack  on  some 
form  of  authority,  political  or  religious.  A  case  in  point  is  the 
cabalistic  "number  of  the  beast"  in  Revelation,  which,  as  is 
now  generally  thought,  is  a  Christian  reference  to  the  hostile 
Emperor  Nero. 

A  second  motive  may  be  found  in  the  desire  of  an  author 
to  secure  the  authorship  of  his  work  to  himself.  Crypto- 
graphic signatures  were  customary  for  the  simple  reason  that 
before  the  invention  of  printing,  and  even  after,  they  were 
the  only  sure  method  of  attaching  a  name  to  a  literary  work 
in  such  a  way  that  it  could  not  be  removed  or  changed.  Title 
pages  may  be  displaced  or  falsified,  but  a  structural  signature 
in  a  literary  work  remains  as  long  as  the  work  itself.  A  crypto- 


lo        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

graphic  signature  thus  prevents  literary  theft  or  the  attri- 
bution of  a  work  to  someone  not  the  author.  At  the  same  time 
it  enables  the  author,  while  he  establishes  his  proprietorship, 
to  avoid  the  immodesty  of  proclaiming  himself  overtly. 
This  idea  derives  from  a  convention,  which  existed  not  only 
in  Dante's  time  but  before  and  after,  of  literary  anonymity. 
In  conformity  with  such  a  convention,  a  hidden  signature  was 
often  the  only  means  of  establishing  authorship. 

A  third  motive  for  the  use  of  cryptograms  in  a  work  of 
literature  is  to  derive  the  form  of  the  work  from  the  idea 
which  it  expresses.  In  any  work  of  art,  indeed,  the  idea  is 
expressed  by  some  sort  of  correspondence  between  that  idea 
and  a  physical  form.  In  the  Divina  Commedia^  for  instance, 
the  division  of  the  poem  into  three  parts  and  the  use  of  a 
three-line  stanza  express  the  idea  of  the  Trinity  which 
dominates  the  life  of  the  author-hero  and  the  form  of  the 
universe  in  which  he  lives.  Many  other  literary,  and 
especially  metrical,  forms  which  are  now  accepted  as  matters 
of  tradition  or  convention  must  in  the  first  place  have  been 
invented  to  express  similar  correspondences.  In  an  analogous 
way,  the  presence  of  a  cryptogram  in  a  work  of  literature 
makes  the  form  of  that  work  derive  from  the  idea  of  the 
cryptogram,  or  at  least  from  the  word  or  words  of  which  the 
cryptogram  is  composed.  In  an  acrostic  poem,  for  example, 
which  gives  as  its  acrostic  spelling  the  name  of  the  lady  to 
whom  it  is  dedicated,  the  form,  since  it  follows,  line  by  line, 
the  letters  of  the  lady's  name,  may  be  said  to  be  derived  from 
the  name,  and  so,  most  appropriately,  from  the  lady  herself. 

For  the  mystic  or  the  symbolist  of  the  past  a  word  had  a 
closer  relation  with  the  thing  which  it  names  than  that  of  a 
mere  arbitrary  association.  It  was  regarded,  indeed,  as  in 
some  mysterious  way  derived  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
thing  itself.  Dante  expresses  this  idea  in  Fita  Nuova,  xiii: 
/  nomi  seguitino  le  nominate  cose,  siccome  e  scritto:  Nomina  sunt 
consequentia  rerum.  An  example  of  this  conception  appears, 
indeed,  in  the  fancy,  to  which  Dante  himself  alludes,  that  the 
form  of  the  Italian  word  omo,  "  man,"  is  written  in  the  human 
face,  the  two  o's  represented  by  the  eyes,  and  the  m  repre- 


THE   GENERAL    EVIDENCE  ii 

sented  by  the  line  of  the  nose  and  the  outlines  of  the  cheeks. 
A  literary  form  that  is  derived  from  a  cryptogram  may  be 
said,  therefore,  according  to  this  conception,  to  be  derived 
quite  literally  from  the  idea  which  the  cryptogram  expresses. 
Moreover,  in  a  sense  that  is  neither  mystical  nor  symbolical, 
the  form  of  a  composition  containing  a  cryptogram  is  based 
necessarily,  as  is  apparent  in  any  acrostic  poem,  on  its 
cryptogram.  It  is  a  form  based  on  an  arrangement  of  letters 
arbitrarily  chosen  by  the  author,  and,  as  such,  is  just  as  valid 
and  interesting  as  a  form  based  on  an  arbitrary  arrangement 
of  sounds,  as  in  rhymes.  Many  cryptograms,  and  especially 
acrostics  expressing  ideas  analogous  to  the  idea  of  the  text, 
were  adopted  by  the  author,  I  believe,  simply  as  aids  and 
novel  conditions  of  composition.  The  difficulties  of  making  a 
text  with  a  cryptogram,  over-rated  as  these  difficulties 
usually  are,  assist  the  author  to  complicate  his  structure 
and  so  to  create  a  higher  beauty  by  virtue  of  the  very  neces- 
sity of  creating  a  higher  unity. 

The  fourth  motive  for  the  literary  use  of  cryptograms  is  at 
once  the  profoundest  and  the  most  ignored.  It  is  the  same 
motive,  indeed,  which  leads  to  the  production  of  allegory; 
the  desire,  that  is,  to  express  and  solve,  if  solving  be  possible, 
the  problem  of  appearance  and  reality.  Allegory  is  a  genre 
that  has  fallen  into  disfavor.  It  is  apt  to  be  underrated  as  a 
mere  device  for  the  exercise  of  powers  of  paraphrase.  In 
saying  one  thing  and  meaning  another,  it  seems,  to  the 
modern  temper  at  least,  to  be  playing  with  pointless  duplici- 
ties. But  the  raison  d'etre  both  of  allegory  and  of  crypto- 
graphic literature  is  simply  that  their  duplicities  are  a  literal 
expression,  a  parallel,  of  the  duplicities  of  the  world  in  which 
we  live;  they  are  intended,  in  their  deepest  aspects,  to  express 
the  difference  between  what  things  are  and  what  things  seem. 
Things  are  not  what  they  seem,  and  life  is  a  game  of  hide-and- 
seek  in  which  we  try  to  find  out  what  things  are.  "It  is  the 
glory  of  God  to  conceal  a  thing;  but  the  honor  of  kings  is  to 
search  out  a  matter. " — Prov.  xxv.2.  In  ancient  and  medieval 
symbolism,  as  well  as  in  the  modern  theory  of  symbolism, 
the  world  of  appearance   is   conceived   as  concealing    the 


12        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

fundamental  reality;  and  hidden  writings  in  symbolical  or 
allegorical  literature,  as  well  as  the  hidden  meaning  in 
allegories,  are  intended  to  parallel  in  the  texts  which  con- 
ceal them  the  reality  which  is  concealed  in  natural 
phenomena,  the  reality  which  is  concealed  in  appearance. 

The  examples  cited  of  cryptographic  literature,  both 
ancient  and  medieval,  and  the  consideration  of  the  motives 
which  produced  it  should  be  sufficient,  I  think,  to  allay  any 
a  priori  prejudice  against  the  likelihood  of  finding  crypto- 
grams in  the  Divina  Commedia.  And,  indeed,  the  existence  of 
at  least  one  cryptogram  in  the  Divina  Commedia  is  generally 
recognized.  I  refer  to  what  Dante  himself  calls  the  enigma 
forte^  the  strangely  worded  prophecy  of  Beatrice  in  the 
thirty-third  canto  o( Purgalorio,  in  which  she  alludes  to  a  com- 
ing saviour  as  "  a  five  hundred,  ten,  and  five." 

It  is  supposed  that  these  words  are  the  cryptic  designation 
of  a  particular  person.  The  identity  of  this  person  has  never, 
however,  been  satisfactorily  established;  it  remains,  in  fact, 
one  of  the  central  mysteries  of  the  poem.  But  the  attempts  to 
identify  this  person  have  commonly  been  based  on  some 
variation  of  the  cryptographic  device  of  substituting  numbers 
for  letters. 

In  addition  to  the  cryptogram  in  the  reference  of  Beatrice 
to  un  cinquecento  diece  e  cinque,  there  is  just  one  other  passage 
in  the  Divina  Commedia  in  which,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  the 
presence  of  a  cryptogram  has  been  recognized.  I  refer  to 
Purg.  xii.  25-63,  which  reads  as  follows: 

Vedea  colui  che  fu  nobil  create  25 

Piu  ch'  altra  creatura,  giu  dal  cielo 

Folgoreggiando  scender  da  un  lato. 
Vedea  Briareo,  fitto  dal  telo  28 

Celestial,  giacer  dall'  altra  parte, 

Grave  alia  terra  per  lo  mortal  gelo. 
Vedea  Timbreo,  vedea  Pallade  e  Marte,  31 

Armati  ancora,  intorno  al  padre  loro, 

Mirar  le  membra  de'  Giganti  sparte. 
Vedea  Nembrot  appi^  del  gran  lavoro,  34 

Quasi  smarrito,  e  riguardar  le  genti 

Che  in  Sennaar  con  lui  superbi  foro. 


THE    GENERAL    EVIDENCE  13 

O  Niobe,  con  che  occhi  dolenti  37 

Vedeva  io  te  segnata  in  sulla  strada 

Tra  sette  e  sette  tuoi  figliuoli  spenti! 
O  Saul,  come  in  sulla  propria  spada  40 

Quivi  parevi  morto  in  Gelboe, 

Che  poi  non  sent!  pioggia  ne  rugiada! 
O  folle  Aragne,  si  vedea  io  te  43 

Gia  mezza  aragna,  trista  in  su  gli  stracci 

Deir  opera  che  mal  per  te  si  fe'. 
O  Roboam,  gia  non  par  che  minacci  46 

Quivi  il  tuo  segno;  ma  pien  di  spavento 

Nel  porta  un  carro  prima  che  altri  il  cacci. 
Mostrava  ancor  Io  duro  pavimento  49 

Come  Almeon  a  sua  madre  fe'  caro 

Parer  Io  sventurato  adornamento. 
Mostrava  come  i  figli  si  gittaro  52 

Sopra  Sennacherib  dentro  dal  tempio, 

E  come,  morto  lui,  quivi  il  lasciaro. 
Mostrava  la  ruina  e  il  crudo  scempio  55 

Che  fe'  Tamiri,  quando  disse  a  Ciro: 

'Sangue  sitisti,  ed  io  di  sangue  t'empio.' 
Mostrava  come  in  rotta  si  fuggiro  58 

Gli  Assiri,  poi  che  fu  morto  Oloferne, 

Ed  anche  le  reliquie  del  martiro. 
Vedea  Troia  in  cenere  e  in  caverne:  61 

O  Ilion,  come  te  basso  e  vile 

Mostrava  il  segno  che  li  si  discerne!* 

This  passage  shows  a  strikingly  symmetrical  arrangement 
of  the  first  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  twelve  terzine  and  of  all 
the  lines  of  the  thirteenth  terzina.  Each  of  the  first  four 
terzine  begins  with  the  letter  v,  each  of  the  second  four  with 
the  letter  o,  and  each  of  the  third  four  with  the  letter  m; 
and  each  of  the  three  lines  of  the  last  terzina  begins  respec- 
tively with  the  same  letters  in  the  same  order:  v,  o,  m. 

It  is  possible,  but  not  at  all  probable,  that  this  symmetrical 
arrangement  of  initials  is  accidental.  The  probability,  indeed, 
is  that  the  arrangement  was  intended  by  Dante  as  a  means  of 
calling  attention  to  some  special  significance  of  the  letters  so 
consistently  reiterated.  The  probability  of  the  intention  of 
the    arrangement    has    not    escaped    the    notice   of   Dante 

*In  the  present  study  I  have  followed  the  text  of  Moore.     In  the  several 
instances  where  I  have  adopted  a  variant  reading  I  have  cited  my  authority. 


14        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

scholars,  who,  remembering  that  in  medieval  usage  v  and  u 
are  the  same  letter,  have  read  the  letters  as  an  acrostic  for 
UOM,  or  "man." 

The  symmetrical  arrangement  of  the  letters  is  not,  how- 
ever, the  only  proof  that  the  acrostic  uom  is  intentional.  The 
passage  is  both  preceded  and  followed  by  words  which  are 
capable  of  being  understood  as  hints  that  something  is 
hidden  in  the  passage.  Preceding  the  passage,  in  line  23,  are 
the  vfordiS'.secondo  V artificiofigurato.  These  words  may  easily 
be  taken  as  hinting  that  something  is  "figured"  by  the 
"artifice"  of  the  symmetrical  arrangement.  And  following 
the  passage  are  the  words,  lines  64-66: 

Qual  di  pennel  fu  maestro  o  di  stile, 
Che  ritraesse  \  ombre  e  i  tratti,  ch'  ivi 
Mirar  farieno  ogn'  ingegno  sottile  ? 

Here  again  there  is  the  possibility  of  a  hinting  double  mean- 
ing in  the  reference  to  the  strokes  which  would  make  every 
subtle  wit  wonder. 

In  addition  to  the  symmetry  of  the  arrangement  of  special 
letters  and  the  hints  of  a  hidden  meaning  there  is  further  con- 
firmation of  the  intention  of  the  acrostic  in  the  correspon- 
dence between  the  meaning  of  the  acrostic  and  the  meaning 
of  the  text.  The  acrostic  vom,  repeating  in  generic  form  as  it 
does  the  expression,  Ymfji  ^  figliuoli  d'  Eva^  corresponds  to  the 
meaning  of  the  passage  throughout,  which  is  simply  man  in 
his  fallen  estate.  The  confirmations  of  intention  which  I  have 
here  applied  to  the  acrostic  vom  have  already  been  discussed 
in  their  general  aspects,  and  they  are  the  same  that  I  shall 
apply  to  the  cryptographic  readings  to  be  presented  later. 

Although  the  cinquecento  diece  e  cinque  and  the  acrostic 
VOM  are  the  only  cryptograms  in  the  Divina  Commedia  which, 
so  far  as  I  know,  have  been  recognized,  there  are  many  pas- 
sages and  expressions  in  the  poem  which  suggest  very  strongly 
the  possibility  of  a  cryptographic  intention. 

In  Par.  xix.  115-141,  the  nine  terzine  show  a  symmetrical 
arrangement  of  the  initial  letters  of  the  terzine  which  is 
strikingly  similar  to  the  arrangement  of  the  passage  in  which 
the  acrostic  vom  is  found.  Each  of  the  first  three  terzine 


THE   GENERAL    EVIDENCE  15 

begins  with  the  letter  l,  each  of  the  second  three  with  the 
letter  v,  and  each  of  the  third  three  with  the  letter  e.  I  know 
of  no  reference  in  the  commentaries  on  Dante  to  this  passage 
as  containing  a  cryptogram.  Yet  the  similarity  of  the  arrange- 
ment to  that  of  the  passage  in  which  the  acrostic  vom  is  found 
makes  it  seem  likely  that  a  cryptogram  is  intended. 

Another  instance  of  a  symmetry  so  unusual  as  to  suggest  a 
cryptic  intention  is  Par.  xx.  40-72,  in  which  the  first  terzina 
and  every  second  terzina  thereafter  begins  with  the  same 
words:  Ora  conosce.  Still  another  instance  is  Par.  xv.  loo-i  11, 
in  which  each  of  the  four  terzine  begins  with  the  same  word: 
Non.  And  another  instance  is  Purg.  vi.  106-117,  where  each 
of  the  four  terzine  begins  with  Vien. 

There  may  also  be  found  in  the  Divina  Commedia  a  number 
of  instances  of  a  cryptic  use  of  separate  letters.  In  Par.  xviii. 
77-78,  the  lights  which  are  the  visible  forms  of  the  spirits 

faciensi 
Or  D,  or  I,  or  l,  in  sue  figure. 

These  three  letters,  which  are  later  discovered  to  be  the 
beginning  of  a  complete  sentence,  are  presented  at  first 
apart  from  their  context,  exactly  as  if  they  had  some  hidden 
significance  of  their  own.  That  they  have  indeed  some  hidden 
significance  appears  from  the  curious  invocation  in  regard  to 
them — and  in  regard  to  them  alone,  since  the  remaining 
letters  of  the  sentence  have  not  yet  been  mentioned — which 
Dante  addresses  to  Pegasus.  In  this  invocation,  after  making 
a  reference  to  "wits,"  Dante  proceeds.  Par.  xviii.  85-86: 

lUustrami  di  te,  si  ch'  io  rilevi 
Le  lor  figure  com'  io  I'ho  concette. 

This  surely  has  a  suspicious  sound.  And  even  after  the  in- 
vocation is  finished  Dante  does  not  proceed  to  give  the  re- 
maining letters  of  the  mystic  sentence  until  he  has  said,  as  if 
the  exact  number  of  them  also  had  a  hidden  significance, 
that  the  lights  then  showed  themselves 

in  cinque  volte  sette 
Vocali  e  consonanti. 

—Par.  xviii.  88-89. 


i6        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

Nor  does  Dante's  preoccupation  with  the  separate  letters 
in  this  passage  end  here,  for  after  he  has  given  the  sentence 
spelt  by  the  lights  of  the  spirits: 

Diligite  justitiam  qui  judicatis  terram, 

he  describes  a  series  of  transformations  of  the  letter  m  with 
which  the  sentence  ends.  This  letter  is  transformed  first  into 
the  shape  of  a  lily  and  then  into  the  shape  of  an  eagle.  The 
association  of  these  shapes  with  the  letter  m  is  a  mystery 
that  has  never  been  adequately  explained. 

The  spirits  within  the  lights  which  group  themselves  in 
such  a  way  as  to  form  the  cryptic  letters  are  likened  by  Dante, 
line  73,  to  birds.  The  idea  of  letters  formed  by  birds  goes 
back  to  the  classic  tradition  of  letter-making  cranes,  which 
was  associated  with  the  Roman  custom  of  reading  auguries 
in  the  flights  of  birds.  This  is  a  sort  of  cryptography  in  nature, 
which  the  augur  deciphers.  References  to  this  tradition  will 
be  found  in  R.  T.  Holbrook's  Dante  and  the  Animal  Kingdom. 

In  Par.  xix.  1 27-1 29,  there  is  a  play  on  the  letters  i  and  m : 

Vedrassi  al  Ciotto  di  Jerusalemme 
Segnata  con  un  i  la  sua  bontate, 
Quando  il  contrario  segnera  un  emme. 

The  I  and  the  m  in  this  passage  are  usually,  and  imperfectly, 
I  believe,  interpreted  by  the  commentators  in  terms  of  their 
meaning  in  the  Roman  notation  of  numbers:  "one"  and  "a 
thousand." 

In  Purg.  xxiii.  32-33,  there  is  an  allusion  to  the  idea  that 
the  word  for  "man,"  omo,  is  written  on  the  human  face: 
the  two  o's,  as  I  have  already  explained,  represent  the  two 
eyes,  and  the  letter  m  represents  the  nose  and  the  outlines  of 
the  cheeks.  The  complete  form  of  the  word,  and  so  of  the  face, 
appears,  indeed,  in  the  single  letter  m,  when  the  m  is  so 
shaped,  as  often  in  medieval  manuscripts,  that  the  central 
line  of  the  letter  may  be  taken  as  representing  the  nose, 
the  two  curved  lines  at  each  side  as  representing  the  out- 
lines of  the  cheeks,  and  the  spaces  circumscribed  by  these 
lines  as  representing  the  eyes. 

Still  another  instance  of  the  cryptographic  use  of  a  separate 


THE    GENERAL    EVIDENCE  17 

letter  in  the  Divina  Commedia  appears  in  the  references  in 
Purgatorio  to  the  seven  p's  cut  by  the  angel  in  the  forehead  of 
Dante.  The  accepted  explanation  of  Dante's  use  of  these 
letters  as  the  initials  of  the  seven  ca.rd\na.\  peccaii,  inadequate 
as  I  believe  it  to  be,  is  based  on  a  recognition  of  their  crypto- 
graphic character,  as  indicating  a  word  by  its  initial. 

Another  unexplained  play  on  letters  appears  in  Par.  vii. 

Ma  quella  riverenza  che  s'indonna 
Di  tutto  me,  pur  per  be  e  per  ice, 
Mi  richinava  come  I'uom  ch'  assonna. 

The  reverence  which  is  thus  described  as  mistress  of  Dante 
even  in  the  spelling  of  the  diminutive  form  of  Beatrice 
suggests  the  possibility  that  there  is  some  cryptographic 
play  on  the  difference  between  the  complete  form,  Beatrice., 
and  the  diminutive  form.  Bice. 

And  there  is  another  mystery  about  Beatrice  which  seems 
cryptographic.  In  Vita  Nuova,  xxx,  she  is  said  to  be  a  "nine;" 
and  throughout  the  Fita  Nuova  the  important  dates  of  her 
life  and  death  are  made  to  conform  to  this  number  by  what 
Moore  calls  a  "curious  juggling."  What  can  this  "curious 
jugghng"  signify? 

In  Inferno  are  two  passages  of  a  character  different  from 
anything  I  have  yet  cited:  the  line: 

Pape  Satan,  pape  Satan  aleppe, 

— Inf.  vii.  I, 
and  the  line: 

Rafel  mai  amech  izabi  almi, 

— Inf.  xxxl.  67. 

Does  it  not  seem  probable  that  these  lines,  which  are  usually 
considered  as  mere  gibberish,  have  a  cryptic  meaning? 

Analogous  to  the  cryptic  use  of  letters  and  numbers  is  the 
use  of  actual  objects  and  their  pictorial  and  literary  repre- 
sentations as  symbols  of  esoteric  meanings.  The  Divina 
Commedia  is  full  of  such  symbols.  I  need  mention  only  a  few 
of  them:  the  eagle,  the  cross,  the  ladder,  the  crown,  and  the 
mystic  rose  in  Paradiso;  the  four  animals  mentioned  in  the 
beginning  of  Inferno,  the  lonza,  the  lupa,  the  leone,  and  the 


i8        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Veltro;  and  in  Purgatorio  the  chariot,  the  griffon,  and  the 
mystic  tree.  All  these  things  are  symbols  of  meanings  more  or 
less  arbitrarily  attached  to  them,  exactly  as  other  than  the 
ordinary  meanings  are  more  or  less  arbitrarily  attached  to 
letters  and  numbers  in  the  making  of  cryptograms.  An  author 
as  prone  as  Dante  to  the  use  of  a  symbolism  of  objects  would 
hardly  have  been  averse  to  the  use  of  the  symbolism  on  which 
cryptography  is  based. 

In  addition  to  the  evidence  already  cited  of  the  presence  of 
cryptograms  in  the  Divina  Commedia  are  the  numerous 
passages  in  which  Dante  refers  to  a  meaning  hidden  behind  a 
veil.  This  hidden  meaning  is  usually  supposed  to  be  merely 
the  allegorical  meaning  that  is  hidden  behind  the  literal. 
It  is  not  impossible  to  infer,  however,  that  the  reference  is 
to  a  meaning  hidden  behind  a  veil  of  cryptographic  devices, 
as  in  the  following  passage.  Inf.  ix.  61-63: 

O  voi  che  avete  gl'  intelletti  sani, 
Mirate  la  dottrina  che  s'asconde 
Sotto  il  velame  degli  versi  strani. 

The  word  arte^  as  in  Purg.  ix.  70-72,  is  frequently  used  by 
Dante  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  be  inconsistent,  to  say  the 
least,  with  a  reference  to  the  arts,  or  devices,  of  cryptography : 

Letter,  tu  vedi  ben  com'  io  innalzo 
La  mia  materia,  e  pero  con  piu  arte 
Non  ti  maravigliar  s'  io  la  rincalzo. 

And  in  Dante's  use  of  the  word  scrittura  there  seems  to  be  a 
similar  duplicity,  as  referring  not  only  to  the  manifest  text 
but  also  to  some  sort  of  writing  that  is  concealed.  An  instance 
occurs  in  Par.  xix.  82-84: 

Certo  a  colui  die  meco  s'assottiglia, 
Se  la  scrittura  sopra  voi  non  fosse, 
Da  dubitar  sarebbe  a  maraviglia. 

And  may  not  the  following  passage.  Par.  xix.  43-45,  be  taken 
as  a  suggestion  of  the  excess  of  meaning  which  a  cryptogram 
reveals  over  the  manifest  meaning  of  a  text?  The  lines  are: 

Non  pote  suo  valor  si  fare  impress© 
In  tutto  I'universo,  che  il  suo  verbo 
Non  rimanesse  in  infinito  eccesso. 


THE    GENERAL    EVIDENCE  19 

The  line,  Par.  xviii.  130: 

Ma  tu,  che  sol  per  cancellare,  scrivi, 

is  perhaps  an  allusion  to  the  cryptographic  method  of  de- 
ciphering by  cancellation  of  non-significant  letters. 

The  most  interesting  instance  of  Dante's  double  use  of  the 
word  scrittura  appears  in  the  following  passage,  Par.  xix. 
130-135: 

Vedrassi  I'avarizia  e  la  viltate 

Di  quel  che  guarda  I'isola  del  foco, 
Dove  Anchise  fini  la  lunga  etate; 
Ed  a  dare  ad  intender  quanto  e  poco, 
La  sua  scrittura  fien  lettere  mozze, 
Che  noteranno  molto  in  parvo  loco. 

The  last  three  lines  of  this  passage  have  been  extraor- 
dinarily mistranslated  and  misinterpreted.  They  are  trans- 
lated by  Norton  as  follows:  "And,  to  give  to  understand 
how  paltry  he  is,  the  writing  for  him  shall  be  in  abridged 
letters  which  shall  note  much  in  little  space."  And  in 
his  comment  Norton  says  that  the  reference  here  is  to 
Frederick  of  Arragon,  as  "too  worthless  to  have  his  many 
misdeeds  written  out  in  full."  However  close  this  translation 
and  this  comment  may  or  may  not  be  to  the  mere  surface 
meaning  of  the  text  as  an  historical  allusion,  they  miss  entirely 
the  literal  meaning  of  the  words  and  their  important  impli- 
cations. 

Other  translations  are  to  the  same  effect.  Lettere  mozze  is 
translated  by  Wicksteed  in  the  Temple  Classics  as  "stunted 
letters;"  by  Longfellow  as  "contracted  letters;"  by  Butler  as 
"abbreviations."  La  sua  scrittura  is  variously  translated  as 
"his  record"  or  "the  writing  against  him." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  la  sua  scrittura  means  literally  "his 
writing"  or  "his  way  of  writing;"  and  lettere  mozze  means 
literally  "letters  cut  off"— "cut  off,"  that  is,  from  the  words 
in  which  they  appear  in  the  text.  The  ordinary  mistrans- 
lation and  misinterpretation  may  correspond,  indeed,  in  a 
loose  way,  to  the  veil  which  Dante  himself  wishes  to  throw 
over  his  real  meaning;  but  the  meaning  itself,  in  at  once  its 
profoundest  and  its  most  literal  aspect,  is  simply  a  reference 


20        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

to  a  cryptographic  way  of  writing  in  which  the  letters  to  be 
read  are  to  be  cut  off,  as  in  acrostics,  for  instance,  from  the 
context.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  they  "shall  signify  much  in 
little  space,"  inasmuch  as  a  cryptogram  is  restricted  to  a 
small  part  of  the  space  occupied  by  the  passage  in  which  it 
is  hidden.  In  Par.  xxxiii.  121,  in  a  passage  that  is  full  of  im- 
plications of  cryptic  intention,  there  seems  to  be  a  similar 
allusion  to  the  brevity  of  cryptographic  expression: 

O  quanto  e  corto  il  dire,  e  come  fioco 
Al  mio  concetto! 

Similarly,  also,  in  the  invocation  to  Pegasus  to  which  I  have 
already  referred  in  connection  with  the  cryptic  letters:  dil, 
the  reference  to  questi  versi  brevi  is  again,  I  believe,  to  the 
inherent  brevity  of  cryptograms. 

The  evidence  which  I  have  given  in  the  foregoing  pages 
points  unmistakably  to  the  use  of  cryptograms  in  the  Divina 
Commedia.  But  after  six  centuries  of  Dante  scholarship  we 
are  still  left  to  wonder  where  and  what  the  cryptograms 
can  be. 


Chapter  II 
ACROSTICS 


Chapter  IT 
ACROSTICS 


THE  cryptograms  to  be  shown  in  the  present  chapter  are 
acrostics.  These  acrostics  are  of  two  kinds,  acrostics  as 
acrostics  are  commonly  defined  and  acrostics  which  I  desig- 
nate as  anagrammatic  acrostics.  The  anagrammatic  acrostic 
form  is  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  defined  in  the  histories  of 
cryptography;  it  is  possibly,  therefore,  especially  in  certain 
extensions  of  the  form  which  I  will  show  in  Chapter  IX,  an 
invention  of  Dante's.  In  the  present  chapter  I  will  illustrate 
with  a  number  of  examples  the  differences  between  the 
common  acrostic  form  and  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  form; 
and  in  Chapter  IX  I  will  discuss  the  two  forms  in  detail. 

The  first  acrostics  that  I  will  show  are  to  be  considered 
as  forming  a  group  by  themselves,  in  that  they  occur  at  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  each  of  the  three  main  divisions  of 
the  Divina  Cominedia:  Inferno,  Purgatorio,  and  Paradiso. 

The  fact  that  these  acrostics  occur  in  the  initial  and  the 
terminal  positions  of  the  three  main  divisions  of  the  poem, 
and  that  they  are  all,  as  I  shall  show,  idenncal  in  structure, 
is  a  confirmation  of  their  intentional  character. 

The  identical  structure  of  the  acrostics  of  this  group 
appears  in  the  fact  that  they  are  all  to  be  read  on  the  initial, 
or  the  initial  and  contiguous,  letters  of  the  first,  fourth, 
seventh,  and  tenth  lines  from  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  a 
canto.  I  call  this  structure,  to  which  all  the  acrostics  of  the 
group  conform,  a  ten-line  frame. 

These  acrostics  can  further  be  confirmed  as  intentional  by 
the  correspondence  which  they  show  to  the  meaning  or  the 
text  and  by  expressions  in  the  text  which  are  capable  of  being 

[23I 


24        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

understood    as    having   a   double    meaning   hinting   at    the 
presence  of  cryptograms. 

The  first  of  this  group  of  acrostics  appears  on  the  initials 
of  the  first,  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  lines  of  Inf.  i.  These 
lines  are  the  first  lines  of  the  first  four  terzine  of  the  canto. 
The  passage  reads  as  follows: 

Nel  mezzo  del  cammin  di  nostra  vita 

Mi  ritrovai  per  una  selva  oscura, 

Che  la  diritta  via  era  smarrita. 
Ahi  quanto  a  dir  qual  era  e  cosa  dura  4 

Questa  selva  selvaggia  ed  aspra  e  forte, 

Che  nel  pensier  rinnuova  la  paura! 
Tanto  e  amara,  che  poco  e  piu  morte:  7 

Ma  per  trattar  del  ben  ch'  i'  vi  trovai, 

Diro  deir  altre  cose  ch'  io  v'  ho  scorte. 
r  non  so  ben  ridir  com'  io  v'  entrai;  10 

Tant'  era  pien  di  sonno  in  su  quel  punto, 

Che  la  verace  via  abbandonai. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine  are: 

I  N 

4        A 

7        'T 

10        I 

Read  down  on  these  initials  the  acrostic:  nati 

Nati  is  not  the  only  acrostic  to  be  found  in  the  passage. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  four  lines 

of  the  canto: 

1  NE 

2  MI 

3  c 

4  A 

Read  down  on  these  letters  the  acrostic:  nemica 

These  two  acrostics  entail  a  departure  from  the  text  of 

Moore,  who  reads   the  first  word  of  the   fourth   line:  Eh. 

I  have  adopted,  instead,  the  reading  of  Torraca  and  others: 

Ahi.  A  reference  to  Moore's  Textual  Criticism  of  the  Divina 


ACROSTICS  25 

Commedia  will  show  that  there  is  good  manuscript  authority 
for  a  reading  which  begins  the  line  with  the  letter  a. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  we  have  no  manuscript  in 
Dante's  own  hand  or  any  that  he  could  have  revised.  So  that 
it  may  well  be  that  cryptograms  which  he  wrote  into  his  work 
have  been  mutilated  or  obliterated  by  scribes  and  scholars. 
Variations  from  his  wording  or  spelling  might  disfigure  a 
cryptogram,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  evidence  of  his  own 
hand,  it  is  fair  to  adopt  any  spelling  for  which  there  is  good 
manuscript  authority. 

Of  the  two  acrostics,  nati  and  nemica,  nati,  as  being  read 
on  the  first,  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  lines  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  canto,  is  identical  in  structure  with  the  acrostics 
which  I  shall  show  at  the  end  oi  Inferno,  at  the  beginning  and 
the  end  of  Purgatorio,  and  at  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
Paradiso.  The  acrostic  nemica  is  subsidiary  to  nati,  the 
acrostic  on  the  ten-line  frame.  Subsidiary  acrostics  will 
appear  with  all  the  ten-line  acrostics  of  the  group. 

The  acrostic  nati  is  an  acrostic  according  to  the  commonly 
accepted  definition,  since  it  is  read  consecutively  on  the 
initials  of  definite  units  of  the  text,  the  units  being  here 
consecutive  terzine.  The  acrostic  nemica  conforms  to  the 
same  definition  in  that  it  is  to  be  read  consecutively  on 
definite  units  of  the  text,  consecutive  lines.  It  departs,  how- 
ever, from  the  commonly  accepted  definition  in  that  it  is  to 
be  read,  not  on  initials,  but  on  initials  and  contiguous  letters. 

I  will  discuss  the  meaning  of  these  acrostics  and  of  the 
other  acrostics  of  the  group  after  I  have  shown  them  all. 

The  second  of  the  acrostics  at  the  beginnings  and  the  ends 
of  the  three  main  divisions  of  the  Divina  Commedia  is  to  be 
read  on  the  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
Inferno  and  of  the  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  lines  from  the 
last.  These  Hnes  are  the  last  line  of  the  canto  and  the  first 
lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine.  The  passage  reads  as 
follows : 

D'  un  ruscelletto  che  quivi  discende  130 

Per  la  buca  d'  un  sasso,  ch'  egli  ha  roso 
Col  corso  ch'  egli  avvolge,  e  poco  pende. 


26        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Lo  Duca  ed  io  per  quel  cammino  ascoso  133 

Entrammo  a  ritornar  nel  chiaro  mondo: 
E  senza  cura  aver  d'  alcun  riposo 

Salimmo  suso,  ei  primo  ed  io  secondo,  136 

Tanto  ch'  io  vidi  delle  cose  belle 
Che  porta  il  ciel,  per  un  pertugio  tondo, 

E  quindi  uscimmo  a  riveder  le  stelle.  139 


Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line 
and  of  the  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  line  from  the  last: 

130        D 
133        LO 
136       s 

139       E 

Read:  sol:  d  .  .  .  e 

The  punctuation  of  this  acrostic,  and,  indeed,  any  punc- 
tuation in  the  cryptograms  which  I  shall  show,  is  inserted 
arbitrarily,  as  a  means  of  indicating  an  interpretation  of  the 
cryptographic  words. 

D  and  e  are  the  first  and  last  letters  of  dante,  and,  as  I 
shall  show  later,  they  are  constantly  used  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  as  a  signature.  The  device  of  indicating  a  proper 
name  by  its  initial  and  final  letters  survives  in  modern 
usage. 

The  acrostic:  sol:  d  .  .  .  e,  like  the  acrostic  nati,  is  con- 
structed on  the  ten-line  frame.  It  differs,  however,  from  the 
acrostic  nati  and  also  from  the  acrostic  nemica  in  the  fact 
that  the  letters  which  compose  it  are  read  not  in  the  order  in 
which  they  appear  on  the  consecutive  lines,  but  in  a  re- 
arranged order,  like  the  letters  of  an  anagram.  I  have  called 
this  form  of  acrostic,  therefore,  which  requires  an  anagram- 
matic  rearrangement  of  the  acrostic  letters,  an  anagrammatic 
acrostic. 

The  subsidiary  acrostic  which  appears  with  this  acrostic: 
sol:  d  ...  e,  is  to  be  read  on  the  following  initial  and 
contiguous  letters  of  the  last  six  lines  of  the  canto: 


ACROSTICS  27 


134 

E 

135 

E 

136 

S 

137 

TA 

138 

C 

139 

E  QUIND 

Read:  dante  esce  qui 

This  acrostic,  like  the  preceding,  is  an  anagrammatic 
acrostic.  Note  that  the  letters  for  this  reading  are  all  either 
initials  or  contiguousletters;within  the  limits  which  they  make 
of  themselves  not  a  single  superfluous  letter  is  contained. 

The  first  four  terzine  of  Purgatorio^  in  which  I  will  show 
another  acrostic  on  the  ten-line  frame,  read  as  follows: 

Per  correr  miglior  acqua  alza  le  vele 

Omai  la  navicella  del  mio  ingegno, 

Che  lascla  retro  a  se  mar  si  crudele. 
E  cantero  di  quel  secondo  regno,  4 

Dove  r  umano  spirito  si  purga, 

E  di  salire  al  ciel  diventa  degno. 
Ma  qui  la  morta  poesi  risurga,  7 

O  sante  Muse,  poiche  vostro  sono, 

E  qui  Calliope  alquanto  surga, 
Seguitando  il  mio  canto  con  quel  suono     10 

Di  cui  le  Piche  misere  sentiro 

Lo  colpo  tal,  che  disperar  perdono. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine,  lines  i,  4,  7,  and  10: 


I 

PER 

4 

E 

7 

MA 

ID 

s 

Read:  peremas 

Peremas,  "Do  thou  remove,"  is  the  second  person,  singu- 
lar, present  subjunctive  of  the  Latin  peremo. 

Another  acrostic  may  be  read  on  the  same  lines;  it  appears 
on  the  initials  of  these  lines: 


28        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

I       p 

4        E 

7        M 

lO        s 

Read:  spem 

The  concurrence  of  the  two  acrostics,  peremas  and  spem, 
on  the  same  lines  is  not  accidental.  For  the  remarkable  asso- 
ciations which  Dante  establishes  between  the  two  words, 
PEREMAS  and  SPEM,  see  Chapter  VII. 

Subsidiary  to  the  acrostics  on  the  ten-line  frame,  peremas 
and  spem,  is  an  acrostic  on  the  first  six  lines  of  the  canto. 
Consider  on  these  lines  the  following  initial  and  contiguous 
letters. 


I 

PE 

2 

OMA 

3 

C 

4 

E    CANT 

5 

DO 

6 

E 

Read:  poema.  ecco  dante 

In  this  anagrammatic  acrostic  the  word  poema  appears 
very  plainly  in  the  first  two  lines  as  a  cluster  of  letters.  Such 
a  cluster  of  significant  letters,  all  of  which  are  contiguous,  is  a 
common  form  of  cryptogram  at  the  beginnings  and  the  ends 
of  poems  and  in  other  salient  positions.  I  regard  such  crypto- 
graphic clusters  of  contiguous  letters,  which  are  indeed 
identical  in  form  with  the  anagrammatic  acrostic,  as  the  form 
from  which  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  is  derived. 

The  last  ten  lines  oi  Purgatorio^  xxxiii.  136-145,  in  which  I 
shall  show  an  acrostic  on  the  ten-line  frame,  read  as  follows: 

S'  io  avessi,  letter,  piu  lungo  spazio  136 

Da  scrivere,  io  pur  canterei  in  parte 

Lo  dolce  her  che  mai  non  m'  avria  sazio; 
Ma  perche  piene  son  tutte  le  carte  139 

Ordite  a  questa  Cantica  seconda, 

Non  mi  lascia  piu  ir  lo  fren  dell'  arte. 


ACROSTICS  29 

lo  ritornai  dalla  santissim'  onda  142 

Rifatto  si,  come  piante  novelle 

Rinnovellate  di  novella  fronda, 
Puro  e  disposto  a  salire  alle  stelle.  145 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  and 
the  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  from  the  last: 

136  SI 

139  MA 

142  10  RI 

145  P 

Read:  pig  rimasi 

Subsidiary  to  this  acrostic  on  the  ten-Hne  frame  is  an 
acrostic  on  the  last  four  lines.  Consider  the  following  initial 
and  contiguous  letters  of  these  lines: 

142  I 

143  RI 

144  RI 

145  PU 

Read:  puri  rii 

The  first  four  terzine  of  Paradiso,  i.  1-12,  in  which  I  shall 
show  an  acrostic  on  the  ten-line  frame,  read  as  follows: 

La  gloria  di  colui  che  tutto  move 

Per  r  universo  penetra,  e  risplende 

In  una  parte  piu,  e  meno  altrove. 
Nel  ciel  die  piu  della  sua  luce  prende        4 

Fu'  io,  e  vidi  cose  che  ridire 

Ne  sa,  ne  puo  chi  di  lassu  discende; 
Perche,  appressando  se  al  suo  disire,  7 

Nostro  intelletto  si  profonda  tanto, 

Che  retro  la  memoria  non  puo  ire. 
Veramente  quant'  io  del  regno  santo        10 

Nella  mia  mente  potei  far  tesoro, 

Sara  ora  materia  del  mio  canto. 

Consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of  the 
first  lines  of  these  terzine,  lines  i,  4,  7,  and  10: 


30        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


I 

LA 

4 

NE 

7 

PE 

lO 

VE 

VELA 

PENE 

Read: 

Subsidiary  to  this  acrostic  on  the  ten-Hne  frame  is  an 
acrostic  on  the  first  three  Hnes  of  the  canto.  Consider  on  these 
hnes  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 

1  LA 

2  PER 

3  IN    UNA 

Read: in  una  perla 

The  last  ten  lines  of  Paradiso^  xxxiii.  136-145,  in  which  I 
shall  show  an  acrostic  on  the  ten-line  frame,  read  as  follows: 

Tale  era  io  a  quella  vista  nuova:  136 

Veder  voleva,  come  si  convenne 
L'  imago  al  cerchio,  e  come  vi  s'  indova; 

Ma  non  eran  da  cio  le  proprie  penne,  139 

Se  non  che  la  mia  mente  fu  percossa 
Da  un  fulgore,  in  che  sua  voglia  venne. 

Air  alta  fantasia  qui  manco  possa;  142 

Ma  gia  volgeva  il  mio  disiro  e  il  velle. 
Si  come  rota  ch'  egualmente  e  mossa, 

L'  amor  che  move  il  sole  e  1'  altre  stelle.  145 

Consider  on  the  last  line  of  the  canto  and  the  fourth, 
seventh,  and  tenth  from  the  last,  that  is,  the  last  line  of  the 
canto  and  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine,  the 
following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 

136  ta 

139  MA 

142  A 

145  l' 

Read:  l'amata 

Subsidiary   to  this  acrostic  on   the  ten-line  frame  is  an 


ACROSTICS  31 

acrostic  on  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of  the 
last  four  lines  of  the  canto: 

142  A 

143  MA 

144  s 

145  L 

Read:  salma 

I  have  now  shown  acrostics  on  the  ten-line  frame,  each 
with  a  subsidiary  acrostic,  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of 
each  of  the  three  main  divisions  of  the  Divina  Commsdia: 
Inferno,  Purgatorioy  and  Paradiso.  Let  us  now  examine  the 
meaning  of  these  acrostics  in  relation  to  the  meaning  of  the 
poem.  The  examination  will  be  necessarily  brief  and  in- 
complete; it  will  merely  suggest,  in  the  present  chapter, 
certain  aspects  of  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia 
which  will  have  to  be  developed  in  detail  in  the  succeeding 
chapters. 

Turn  first  to  the  acrostics,  nati  and  nemica,  which  appear 
at  the  beginning  of  Inferno.  Nati  is  profoundly  appropriate 
to  the  symbolism  not  only  of  the  opening  lines  of  the  poem 
but  also  of  the  poem  as  a  whole.  The  theme  of  the  poem  is 
mankind,  the  children  who  are  born  into  the  selva  oscura, 
the  moral  obscurities  of  the  life  on  earth. 

The  lives  of  the  nati  are  typified  by  the  life  of  Dante  him- 
self, who,  as  the  hero  of  an  autobiographical  dream,  portrays 
himself  as  the  representative  man  on  the  journey  from  birth 
to  death.  But  the  life  of  Dante,  as  he  portrays  it  in  his  poem, 
is  not  merely  a  typical  life.  It  is  also,  like  the  life  of  Christ, 
a  model  hfe.  He  proceeds  on  his  journey  from  Hell  to  Heaven, 
from  evil  to  good,  from  human  to  divine;  he  is  morally 
regenerated.  Regeneration  is  literally  rebirth;  and  rebirth, 
or  birth,  in  its  physical  aspects,  has  been  universally  used  as 
a  symbol  of  moral  regeneration.  An  illustration  from  the 
Bible  of  moral  regeneration  expressed,  or  understood,  in 
terms  of  physical  birth,  appears  in  the  conversation  between 
Nicodemus  and  Christ,  John  iii.  3-7: 


32        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

"Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  thee,  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

"Nicodemus  saith  unto  him.  How  can  a  man  be  born  when 
he  is  old?  can  he  enter  the  second  time  into  his  mother's 
womb,  and  be  born  ? 

"Jesus  answered,  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  Except  a 
man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

"That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh;  and  that  which  is 
born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit. 

"  Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  Ye  must  be  born  again." 

The  same  idea  of  moral  rebirth  as  symbolized  by  physical 
birth  is  expressed  in  the  familiar  passages:  "Except  ye  be 
converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven;"  and  "Suffer  the  little  children 
to  come  unto  me:  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

The  idea  of  rebirth  underlies  the  whole  story  of  Christ 
himself,  since  he  is  first  born — or  reborn,  if  considered  as 
previously  existing  in  the  Trinity — of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
is  afterwards  reborn — resurrected— from  the  grave  to  his 
divine  life  as  God. 

The  rebirth  symbolism  so  literally  expressed  in  the  Gospels 
pervades  the  Divina  Commedia  to  a  degree,  I  believe,  hitherto 
unsuspected;  and  it  implies  necessarily,  for  the  man  who  is 
reborn,  either  a  mother  who  bears  him  twice,  or  else  the 
existence  of  two  mothers,  one  the  mother  of  his  human  life 
and  one  the  mother  of  the  divine  life.  The  first  is  evil,  since 
she  delivers  her  child  into  the  evil  life  of  the  flesh.  The  second 
is  good,  since  she  delivers  her  child  into  the  divine  life  of  the 
spirit.  The  symbolism  of  the  dual  mother,  or  of  two  mothers, 
is  inherent  in  the  symbolism  of  moral  rebirth,  and  it  is 
expressed  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  The  evil  mother  of  Dante 
is  she  who  has  delivered  him  into  the  evil  life  in  which  he  has 
lost  himself  at  the  beginning  of  the  poem.  The  good  mother  of 
Dante  is  she  who  delivers  him  into  the  divine  life  in  which  he 
finds  himself  at  the  end  of  the  poem;  she  is  no  other,  in  fact, 


ACROSTICS  33 

than  Beatrice,  who  dehvers  Dante  into  the  life  of  the  spirit 
by  virtue  of  his  love  for  her  and  her  love  for  him. 

Now  there  is  a  passage  in  the  conversation  between  Christ 
and  Nicodemus  about  rebirth  which  is  of  the  highest  im- 
portance for  the  interpretation  of  all  myths  and  allegories  of 
rebirth;  it  is  the  question  of  Nicodemus:  "How  can  a  man  be 
born  when  he  is  old?  can  he  enter  the  second  time  into  his 
mother's  womb,  and  be  born?"  The  idea  of  entering  the 
mother's  womb  a  second  time  as  the  means  of  rebirth  is 
common  to  the  mythologies  and  religions  of  many — I  might 
even  venture  to  say  of  all — peoples;  and  it  is  an  idea  which 
implies  an  act  of  incest,  whether  disguised  or  overt,  since  the 
only  way  of  reentering  the  womb  from  which  a  man  is  born  is 
by  the  act  of  sexual  union.  Sometimes,  indeed,  the  incestuous 
element  in  myths  and  allegories  of  rebirth  is  disguised  by  the 
fact  that  the  man  to  be  reborn  is  represented  as  having,  as  I 
have  already  suggested,  two  mothers.  But  these  two  mothers 
must  be  understood,  in  the  last  analysis,  as  representing 
simply  the  two  functions  of  motherhood  which  the  one  mother 
possesses:  the  function  of  conceiving  the  child,  as  from  sexual 
union,  and  the  function  of  delivering  the  child,  as  in  child- 
birth. In  myths  and  allegories  of  rebirth,  therefore,  in  which 
there  are  two  mothers,  these  two  mothers  refer  to  the  one 
mother  who  first  bore  her  child  and  then  received  him  back 
into  her  womb,  as  by  sexual  union,  in  order  that  she  might 
again  give  him  life.  Incest  in  myth  and  religion  is  a  universal 
symbol  of  the  means  of  rebirth;  and  it  is  necessary  to 
recognize  this  symbolism  in  order  to  understand  the  meaning 
of  the  Divina  Commedia.  Throughout  the  present  volume  I 
will  show  that  the  Divina  Commedia  is  based  on  a  conscious 
and  highly  rationalized  symbolism  of  incest  as  the  means  by 
which  the  rebirth  of  the  hero  Dante  is  accomplished. 

In  connection  with  the  symbolism  thus  suggested  of  the 
acrostic  nati,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  acrostic  nemica 
is  the  cryptographic  expression,  just  as  the  selva  oscura  is  the 
symbolic  expression,  of  the  evil  mother,  from  whom  the  nati 
are  born.  Indeed,  as  a  detail  of  the  cryptographic  form,  the 
NEMICA,  an  acrostic  on  four  lines,  suggests  the  mother  in  the 


34        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

sense  that  the  nati,  an  acrostic  on  the  ten-line  frame,  is 
formed  in  part  of  the  very  body  of  the  nemica,  the  letters  n, 
line  1,  and  a,  line  4,  and  also,  in  extending  beyond  the  four- 
line  frame  of  the  nemica,  grows  out  of  it. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  meaning  of  the  two  acrostics: 
sol:  d  .  .  .  e  and  dante  esce  qui,  which  appear  at  the 
conclusion  of  Injerno.  The  acrostic:  dakte  esce  qui,  has  an 
obvious  correspondence  to  the  text,  which  actually  describes 
how  Dante  issues  from  Hell.  The  acrostic:  sol:  d  .  .  .  e, 
points  to  the  association  of  Dante,  as  the  hero  of  the  poem, 
with  the  sun  as  his  symbol.  The  sun  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  has  never  been  sufficiently  understood;  in  the 
course  of  the  present  volume  I  shall  have  occasion  to  develop 
it  in  detail,  and  I  shall  be  able  to  confirm  it  with  abundant 
cryptographic  proof.  I  will  confine  myself  at  present,  there- 
fore, to  indicating  that  the  sun,  which  has  universally  been 
used  as  the  symbol  of  God  and  which  constantly  appears,  in 
Christian  symbolism,  as  the  symbol  of  Christ,  is  consistently 
used  throughout  the  Divina  Commedia  as  the  symbol  of  Dante. 
Dante's  use  of  the  sun  as  the  symbol  for  himself  is  very  ap- 
parent in  the  fact  that  his  descent  into  Hell  is  synchronized 
with  the  descent  of  the  sun,  and  that  his  ascent  to  Purgatory 
is  synchronized  with  the  rising  sun.  Other  correspondences 
between  Dante's  journey  and  the  course  of  the  sun  will  be 
developed  later;  they  prove  that  the  theme  of  the  poem  might 
well  be  considered  as  a  self-conscious  variation  of  the  sun 
myth.  The  two  acrostics  at  the  end  of  Inferno:  dantte  esce 
QUI  and  sol:  d  .  .  .  e,  confirm  this  idea,  for  the  hour  at 
which  Dante  issues  from  Hell  is  sunrise  of  Easter. 

Now  the  common  feature  of  all  sun  myths,  with  which  the 
theme  of  the  Divina  Commedia  is  thus  suggested  as  analogous, 
is  the  idea  o{  rebirth.  The  sun  that  in  the  evening  sinks  back 
in  death  into  the  mother  earth  from  whom  it  was  born  in  the 
morning  is  to  be  born  again  in  the  morning  to  follow.  This 
idea  of  the  rebirth  of  the  sun  from  the  mother  who  had  given 
birth  to  it  in  the  first  place  involves  the  idea  of  incest — an  idea 
which,  as  I  have  already  suggested,  is  fundamental  in  the 
symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 


ACROSTICS  35 

The  three  acrostic  readings  which  I  show  on  the  opening 
Hnes  of  Purgatorio  are:  peremas  and  spem,  on  the  ten-Hne 
frame,  and  the  subsidiary:  poema:  ecco  dante.  The  peremas 
is  the  most  remarkable  single  word  that  I  have  discovered 
among  the  cryptograms  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  and  it 
appears  very  often.  The  use  which  Dante  makes  of  this  word 
is  extremely  complicated;  for  the  detailed  discussion  of  its 
meaning  I  shall  have  to  refer  the  reader,  therefore,  to 
Chapter  VII,  For  our  present  purposes  it  is  sufficient  to 
surmise  that,  as  the  Latin  for  "Do  thou  remove,"  peremas 
instructs  the  reader  of  the  Divina  Commedia  to  remove  the 
veil  that  covers  the  secret  meaning  of  the  poem. 

The  acrostic  spem,  which  appears  on  the  same  lines  which 
give  peremas,  has  a  meaning  which  is  obviously  related  to  the 
meaning  of  Purgatorio^  in  which  hope  is  the  prevailing  mood. 
Hope  in  Purgatory  contrasts  with  despair  in  Hell,  as  appears, 
indeed,  in  the  inscription  written  over  the  gate  of  Hell: 

Lasciate  ogni  speranza,  voi,  ch'  entrate. 

The  appropriateness  of  the  acrostic:  poema:  ecco  dante, 
to  the  text  is  self-evident,  since  it  signs  Purgatorio  at  its 
beginning  with  the  author's  name.  Cryptographic  signatures 
are  common  at  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  a  main  division 
of  a  work.  Notice  that  the  acrostic  poema  is  echoed  in  the 
text,  line  7,  in  the  word  poesi.  In  the  first  line  of  the  passage 
note  the  word  vele^  or  "sails."  This  word  suggests  a  pun  on 
the  word  for  "veil,"  vel^  the  presence  of  which  in  the  text 
of  the  Divina  Commedia  is  almost  invariably  associated  with 
some  cryptographic  device.  Another  word  which  Dante 
constantly  associates  with  his  cryptograms  is  ingegno,  a 
reference  to  wit  or  cunning,  which  appears  in  the  present 
passage  in  hne  2.  I  ask  the  reader  to  bear  in  mind  these 
associations  until  I  confirm  them  by  further  examples. 

The  acrostics  which  I  have  shown  at  the  end  of  Purgatorio 
are:  pig  rimasi  and  puri  rii.  The  puri  rii  correspond 
obviously  to  the  two  streams  Eunoe  and  Lethe,  both  of 
which  are  discussed  in  the  concluding  cantos  of  Purgatorio 
and  in  both  of  which  Dante  is  bathed.  These  streams,  as  I 


36        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

shall  develop  later,  are  symbols  of  the  two  mothers,  or  of  the 
dual  mother,  who  constantly  appears  in  myths  of  rebirth, 
I  shall  have  to  defer  to  a  later  chapter  the  discussion  of 
Dante's  bathing  in  these  two  mother  images  as  symbolizing 
the  physical  relations  of  birth  and  sexual  union. 

I  shall  likewise  have  to  defer  the  discussion  of  the  meaning 
of  the  acrostic:  pig  rimasi.  Let  it  suffice  for  the  present  to 
suggest  that  Dante  has  "slept"  with  Beatrice,  Purg.  xxxii. 
The  description  of  this  sleep  expresses  in  symbolism  which 
has  not,  I  believe,  been  recognized,  the  idea  that  the  two 
lovers  have  repeated  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  the  act  for  which  Adam  and  Eve  were  expelled  from 
it.  The  difference,  however,  between  Dante  and  Adam  is 
simply  this,  that  where  Adam  sinned  by  disobedience  to  God, 
Dante  remained  "pious,"  or  respectful  of  the  divine  con- 
ditions for  such  intercourse. 

The  acrostics  at  the  beginning  oi Paradiso  are:  vela  pene 
and  IN  UNA  PERLA.  The  meaning  of  these  acrostics  is 
appropriate  to  the  text.  In  the  symbolism  of  the  sun  a^  God 
the  light  of  the  sun  is  his  phallic  symbol.  The  phaUic  light 
which  "penetrates  the  universe"  as  "in  a  pearl"  is  the 
principle  which,  in  the  literal  sense,  makes  the  earth,  and,  in 
the  moral  sense,  the  soul  bear  fruit.  In  the  symbolism  of  the 
Divina  Commedia^  as  in  the  symbolism  of  primitive  myth 
and  religion,  the  analogies  with  the  sexual  organism  on  which 
the  symbolism  is  based  are  developed  in  detail.  For  the  dis- 
cussion of  Dante's  symbolism  of  light  as  phallic  in  relation  to 
the  female  form  of  the  universe,  see  Chapter  VIL 

The  two  acrostics  at  the  end  of  Paradiso  are:  l'amata  and 
SALMA.  Salma  means  corpo  morto  or  corpo;  it  is  a  word  which 
Dante  uses,  Par.  xxxii.  113-114,  in  the  phrase: 

II  Figliuol  di  Dio 
Carcar  si  vuole  della  nostra  salma. 

The  appropriateness  of  the  acrostic  salma  to  the  passage  in 
which  it  appears,  and,  indeed,  to  the  theme  of  the  entire  poem 
becomes  evident  in  considering  the  theme  of  the  poem  in  the 
light  of  Dante's  own  definition,  in  the  letter  to  Can  Grande: 


ACROSTICS  37 

"The  subject,  then,  of  the  whole  work,  taken  according  to 
the  letter  alone,  is  simply  a  consideration  of  the  state  of  souls 
after  death;  for  from  and  around  this  the  action  of  the  whole 
work  turneth.  But  if  the  work  is  considered  according  to  its 
allegorical  meaning,  the  subject  is  man,  liable  to  the  reward 
or  punishment  of  Justice,  according  as  through  the  freedom  of 
the  will  he  is  deserving  or  undeserving."* 

It  thus  appears  that  the  real  subject  of  the  poem,  disguised 
as  it  is  as  a  journey  through  the  post-mortem  regions  of  Hell, 
Purgatory,  and  Paradise,  is  in  reality  the  life  of  man  on 
earth — a  journey,  indeed,  but  a  journey  which  begins  with 
birth  and  ends  with  death.  This  meaning  of  the  poem  is 
indicated  by  the  acrostic  nati  at  the  beginning  of  the  poem, 
which  symbolizes  the  birth  of  the  hero  Man,  and  by  the 
acrostic  salma  at  the  end  of  the  poem,  which  symbolizes  his 
corpse,  or  death.  And  just  as  we  find  the  female  nemica 
in  connection  with  the  nati  at  the  beginning  of  the  poem,  we 
find  l'amata  in  connection  with  the  salma  at  the  end  of  the 
poem.  L'amata  is  the  beloved  whom  Dante  rejoins,  at  the 
end  of  his  journey,  in  death;  and  she  contrasts  with  the 
NEMICA,  from  whom  his  journey  begins  at  birth.  Dante  is  at 
once,  as  I  shall  have  to  develop  later,  the  lover  of  l'amata 
and,  in  a  symbolical  sense  at  least,  her  son,  since  it  is  through 
his  love  for  her  that  he  is  reborn,  or  born  to  God.  Thus  the 
NEMICA  and  l'amata  represent  the  two  mothers,  or  the  two 
aspects  of  the  one  mother,  who  is  universally  present  in 
myths  and  allegories  of  rebirth.  The  nemica,  as  the  evil 
mother,  delivers  the  child  from  her  womb  to  the  evil  life  on 
earth ;  she  is  the  mother  of  the  evil  life.  L'amata,  as  the  divine 
mother,  receives  the  child  back  into  her  womb,  as  to  the 
divine  source  of  life  in  which  the  life  of  the  son  may  be 
renewed.  She  is  thus  the  mother  of  the  divine  life,  a  lorm  of 
life  which  is  constantly  symbolized,  not  only  in  myths, 
dreams,  and  religion,  but  also  in  the  allegory  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  as  the  prenatal  existence  in  the  womb.  The  foetus 
in  the  womb  has  been  universally  symbolized,  as  I  shall  show 
later,  by  the  corpse  in  the  grave;  it  is  a  symbolism  which 

*From  the  translation  of  Dante's  Eleven  Letters  by  Chas.  S.  Latham. 


4C5285 


38        THE    CR^PTOCJRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

rationalizes  the  universal  desire  to  consider  the  grave,  or 
death,  as  the  birthplace,  or  birth,  of  a  life  after  death. 

The  intra-uterine  existence,  as  thus  symbolized  by  the 
corpse  in  the  grave,  and  as  we  shall  see,  by  the  soul  in  Hell  or 
Purgatory  or  Paradise,  is  taken  by  Dante  as  the  symbol  of 
the  return  of  the  soul  to  God;  the  soul  is  thus  enfolded  again 
in  the  very  source  of  life;  and  God,  as  the  supreme  object  of 
love,  is  conceived  as  a  divine  motherhood  from  whose  womb 
the  soul  is  expelled  in  birth  to  the  evil  life  of  the  fle;h  on 
earth,  and  back,  to  whose  womb  the  soul  once  more  returns 
for  the  life  eternal.  It  is  in  this  dual  character  of  the  mother 
as  expelling  and  receiving  the  child  that  the  nemica  and 
l'amata  are  to  be  considered  as  in  the  last  analysis  identical, 
and  in  Dante's  relation  to  this  dual  character  there  is  neces- 
sarily implied  the  idea  of  incest.  It  is  an  idea,  moreover,  which 
is  inherent  in  the  Christian  symbolism  of  the  birth  of  Christ. 
Dante  expresses  the  idea  supremely  in  the  prayer  to  the 
Virgin  Mary,  Par.  xxxiii.  i : 

Vergine  Madre,  liglia  del  tuo  Figlio. 

The  complicated   relationship   implied  in  this  line  is   both 
filial  and  marital. 

I  showed  in  connection  with  the  acrostics:  nati  and  nemica, 
that  the  nemica  seems  to  be  indicated  as  the  mother  of  the 
NATI  by  the  acrostic  figure  of  the  nati  as  formed  in  part  of 
the  same  letters  as  the  nemica,  and  as  extending  beyond,  or 
growing  out  of,  it.  The  acrostic  figure  appears  thus: 

1  NE 

2  MI 

3  c 

4  A 
5 

6 

7       T 

8 

9 

lO         I 

Analogous  to  this  acrostic  figure  of  the  nati,  as  children. 


ACROSTICS  39 

growing  out  of  the  maternal  nemica  is  the  acrostic  figure  of 
the  SALMA,  as  corpse  or  foetus,  in  the  womb  of  l'amata: 

136        TA 


137 

138 

139 

MA 

140 

141 

142 

A 

143 

MA 

144 

s 

145 

L 

THE  DIVISION  INTO  FOUR 

There  is  another  division  of  the  Divina  Commedia  that  has 
not  yet  been  mentioned.  I  refer  to  the  introduction  to  the 
poem,  which  is  contained  in  the  first  canto  of  Inferno.  The 
three  regions  of  the  life  after  death  are  generally  considered 
as  the  scene  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  In  reality,  however,  the 
scene  is  the  universe,  which  includes,  in  its  entirety,  the 
important  region  of  Earth,  and  it  is  in  the  introductory  canto 
oi Inferno  that  the  life  on  earth  is  represented  by  a  symboHsm 
that  is  as  complete  as  it  is  compact.  The  apparent  tripartite 
division  of  the  Divina  Commedia  thus  conceals  a  division  into 
four  parts. 

The  actual  division  into  four  of  the  apparent  tripartite 
division  of  the  poem  is  an  essential  feature  of  Dante's  number 
symbolism.  This  fact,  however,  is  not  recognized;  it  is 
constantly  said,  to  the  contrary,  that  the  number  symbolism 
of  the  poem  is  based  on  three;  and,  in  support  of  the  three  as 
the  basic  number,  the  Trinity  of  God  is  cited  as  suggesting  to 
Dante  the  numerical  structure  that  he  follows  not  only  in  the 
division  of  his  poem  into  three  main  parts  but  also  in  his 
invention  of  the  terzina,  his  peculiar  stanza  form  of  three 
lines.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  instances  cited  in  favor  of  the 


40        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

three  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia  prove  the  contrary; 
for  both  the  Trinity  and  the  terzina  are  in  reality  based  on  a 
concept  of  four.  The  four  of  the  Trinity  is  evident  in  the  basic 
Christian  belief  that  the  Son  of  the  Triune  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost  makes  a  fourth  in  the  human  form  in  which  he  is 
reborn  on  earth  as  Christ.  As  Dante  says.  Par.  i.  104-105; 

questo  e  forma 
Che  runiverso  a  Dio  fa  simigliante. 

The  statement  that  the  universe,  with  its  four-fold  division 
into  Paradise,  Purgatory,  Hell,  and  Earth,  is  like  God 
implies  the  four-fold  aspect  of  God. 

Similarly,  the  terzina,  which  is  apparently  based  on  a 
system  of  three,  is  in  reality  based  on  a  system  of  four  lines; 
for  the  terzina  form,  by  virtue  of  its  unrhymed  second  line, 
is  only  completed  by  the  rhyme  of  the  first  line  of  the 
succeeding  terzina,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  end  of  a  canto,  by 
the  rhyme  of  the  separate  last  line. 

The  four  which  thus  appears  in  the  Trinity,  in  the  structure 
of  the  Christian  universe  of  Dante,  and  in  the  stanza  form 
which  he  himself  invented,  is  emphasized  in  the  Divina  Com- 
media by  many  symbols  which  I  cannot  at  present  take  time 
to  enumerate.  The  instances  just  cited,  however,  are  sufficient 
in  themselves  to  indicate  that  the  poem  is  in  reality  divided 
into  four  principal  parts,  and  that  the  number  symbolism 
not  only  of  the  poem  but  of  Dante's  conception  of  life  is 
based,  not  on  three,  but  on   the  relation  of  three  to  four. 

This  view  of  the  number  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Com- 
media is  consonant  with  the  fact  that  Dante  has  placed 
acrostics  on  the  ten-line  frame  at  the  end  o{  Inferno  i,  the  end 
of  the  division  that  might  properly  be  called  Terra^  and  at  the 
beginning  of  Inferno  ii,  which  is  really  the  beginning  of 
Inferno  proper. 

The  ten  lines  that  show  the  acrostic  at  the  end  of  Inf.  i  are: 

In  tutte  parti  impera,  e  quivi  regge,  127 

Quivi  e  la  sua  citta  e  1'  alto  seggio: 
O  felice  colui  cui  ivi  elegge!' 


ACROSTICS  41 

Ed  io  a  lui:  *Poeta,  io  ti  richieggio  130 

Per  quello  Dio  che  tu  non  conoscesti, 
Acciocch'  io  fugga  questo  male  e  peggio 

Che  tu  mi  meni  la  dov'  or  dicesti,  133 

Si  ch'  io  vegga  la  porta  di  san  Pietro, 
E  color  cui  tu  fai  cotanto  mesti.' 

Allor  si  mosse,  ed  io  li  tenni  retro.  136 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  and 
of  the  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  from  the  last: 


127 

IN 

130 

ED 

I 

133 

C 

136 

A 

E  INDICA 

Read; 

This  is  an  incomplete  reading  of  the  acrostic  on  these  lines. 
Notice  the  words  Ed  ioy  line  130;  they  are,  as  I  shall  show  in 
the  chapter  on  the  Universal  Form,  a  cryptic  sign  for  Dante 
himself.  The  indica  spelling  down  the  line  through  the  di  of 
ED  10  makes  a  cross  with  ed  io,  thus: 

IN 
E    di    O 

c 

a 

The  cryptographic  reading,  therefore,  is  in  effect:  indica 
ED  10.  That  is,  it  "indicates  Dante;"  and  indicating  Dante  in 
the  form  of  a  cross,  it  suggests  the  identification  which  he 
constantly  makes  of  himself  with  Christ.  For  further  dis- 
cussion of  the  cryptographic  content  of  this  passage  see 
pp.  151-2. 

The  first  four  terzine  oi Inf.  ii  are: 

Lo  giorno  se  n'  andava,  e  1'  aer  bruno 

Toglieva  gli  animai  che  sono  in  terra 

Dalle  fatiche  loro;  ed  io  sol  uno 
M'  apparecchiava  a  sostener  la  guerra  4 

Si  del  cammino  e  si  della  pietate, 

Che  ritrarra  la  mente.  che  non  erra. 


42        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

O  Muse,  o  alto  ingegno,  or  m*  aiutate:  7 

0  mente,  che  scrivesti  cio  ch'  io  vidi, 
Qui  si  parra  la  tua  nobilitate. 

Io  cominciai:  *Poeta  che  mi  guidi,  IO 

Guarda  la  mia  virtu,  s'  ella  e  possente, 
Prima  che  all'  alto  passo  tu  mi  fidi. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 

1  LO 

4  M 

7       o 

ID  10 

Read:  l'omo  id 

Subsidiary  to  this  acrostic  on  ten  lines  appears  an  acrostic 
on  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  two  lines: 

1  LO 

2  TO 
Read:  loto 

The  relation  of  these  acrostics  to  the  meaning  of  the  text 
is  very  close.  Loto,  a  term  iorjango,  commonly  used  to  mean 
i  I  gen  ere  umano^  corresponds  to  the  English  use  of  "clay"  for 
"mankind."  In  the  present  instance,  it  is  the  generic  term  for 
what  Dante,  as  l'omo  id,  represents  as  an  individual.  Dante, 
it  is  implied,  represents  mankind  by  virtue  of  the  typical  life 
in  which  he  portrays  himself. 

But  the  most  interesting  implication  is  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  both  these  acrostics  spring  from  Lo  giorno^  line  i. 
The  day,  that  is,  the  sun,  is  sinking  as  Dante  descends 
into  Hell,  and  it  rises  again  as  Dante  ascends  to  Purgatory. 
Dante  thus,  as  the  representative  omo,  whose  nature  is  both 
human  and  divine,  associates  himself  with  the  sun  as  the 
universal  symbol  both  of  mankind  and  of  God. 

The  four  divisions  of  the  Divina  Commedia  are  thus  shown 
to  be  marked  off  by  acrostics  on  the  ten-line  frame  at  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  each.  The  number  symbolism  of 
four  in  relation  to  three  which  this  demarcation  confirms  is 
further  confirmed  by  the  structure  of  the  acrostics  them- 


ACROSTICS  43 

selves.  The  ten-line  frame  acrostic  is  constructed,  essentially, 
on  Jour  terzine  of  three  lines  each — the  number  of  lines  in 
the  terminal  acrostics  being  necessarily  diminished  by  the 
incomplete  form  of  the  final  terzina.  The  four  that  thus 
appears  in  connection  with  a  three — the  number  of  lines 
being  four  times  three — suggests  again  the  symbolism  of  3 :4. 
It  is  to  be  further  noted  that  the  four  terzine  involved  in  the 
ten-line  frame  are  very  clearly  marked  off  in  Inj.  i,  Purg.  i, 
and  Par.  i,  as  rhetorical  units.  In  each  of  these  openings  the 
four  terzine  are  separated  from  the  fifth  by  a  decided  change 
of  thought  and  subject.  The  coincidence  of  the  acrostic  frame 
with  the  rhetorical  unit  can  scarcely  be  considered  accidental. 

OTHER  ACROSTICS 
ON  THE  TEN-LINE  FRAME 

There  are  to  be  found  in  the  Divina  Commedia  many  other 
acrostics  on  the  ten-line  frame  both  at  the  beginnings  and  the 
ends  of  cantos  and  in  the  interior  of  cantos.  I  will  give  here  a 
few  examples,  simply  for  the  purpose  of  further  illustrating 
the  structure.  The  remaining  examples  of  acrostics  on  the 
ten-line  frame  I  will  reserve  for  later  chapters,  in  which  the 
meaning  of  the  acrostics  will  serve  to  confirm  my  inter- 
pretation of  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 

The  following  passage.  Inf.  viii.  82-93,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

lo  vidi  piu  di  mille  in  sulle  porte  82 

Da'  ciel  piovuti,  che  stizzosamente 

Dicean:  'Chi  e  costui,  che  senza  morte 
Va  per  lo  regno  della  morta  gente?'  85 

E  il  savio  mio  Maestro  fece  segno 

Di  voler  lor  parlar  segretamente. 
Allor  chiusero  un  poco  il  gran  disdegno,        88 

E  disser:  'Vien  tu  solo,  e  quei  sen  vada, 

Che  si  ardito  entro  per  questo  regno. 
Sol  si  ritorni  per  la  folle  strada:  91 

Provi  se  sa,  che  tu  qui  rimarrai 

Che  gli  hai  scorta  si  buia  contrada.' 


44        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine; 

82  10 

85  V 

88  A 

91  s 

Read:  savio 

The  passage  begins,  line  82,  with  the  words  lo  vidi;  we 
shall  see  later  that  the  presence  of  these  words  at  the  begin- 
ning of  a  terzina  is  frequently  a  hint  of  the  presence  of  a 
cryptogram.  The  intention  of  the  acrostic  savio  is  con- 
firmed by  the  repetition  of  the  word  in  line  86. 

Another  hint  of  the  presence  of  a  cryptogram  is  to  be  found 
in  the  acrostic  on  the  three  lines  of  the  terzina  beginning  line 
85.  Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 

85  V 

86  E 

87  DI 

Read:  vedi 

In  the  second  line  of  the  terzina  in  which  the  acrostic  vedi 
is  found  occurs  the  word  savio^  line  86.  Possibly  the  acrostic 
instruction  to  look  is  a  direction  to  this  word,  the  reap- 
pearance of  which  in  the  ten-line  acrostic  savio  confirms 
the  acrostic. 

The  following  passage.  Par.  xiv.  70-81,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

E  si  come  al  salir  di  prima  sera  70 

Comincian  per  lo  ciel  nuove  parvenze, 
Si  che  la  vista  pare  e  non  par  vera; 

Parvemi  li  novelle  sussistenze  73 

Cominciar  a  vedere,  e  fare  un  giro 
Di  fuor  dair  altre  due  circonferenze. 

O  vero  isfavillar  del  santo  spiro,  76 

Come  si  fece  subito  e  candente 
Agli  occhi  miei  che  vinti  non  soffriro! 

Ma  Beatrice  si  belja  e  ridente  79 

Mi  si  mostro,  che  tra  quelle  vedute 
Si  vuol  lasciar  che  non  seguir  la  mente. 


ACROSTICS  45 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


70 

E 

73 

P 

76 

0 

79 

MA 

Read: 

POEMA 

The  first  four  terzine  of  Purg.  ii  are: 

Gia  era  il  sole  all'  orizzonte  giunto, 

Lo  cui  meridian  cerchio  coperchia 

Jerusalem  col  suo  piu  alto  punto: 
E  la  notte  che  opposita  a  lui  cerchia,  4 

Uscia  di  Gange  fuor  colle  bilance, 

Che  le  caggion  di  man  quando  soperchia; 
Si  che  le  bianche  e  le  vermiglie  guance,  7 

L^  dove  io  era,  della  Bella  Aurora 

Per  troppa  etate  divenivan  ranee. 
Noi  eravam  lunghesso  il  mare  ancora,  10 

Come  gente  che  pensa  a  suo  cammino, 

Che  va  col  core,  e  col  corpo  dimora: 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters: 

I  G 

4       E 
7       s 

10  NO 

Read:  segno. 

For  the  importance  which  Dante  attaches  to  the  position 
of  Jerusalem  indicated  in  the  text  see  pp.  267-72. 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xiii.  145-154,  consists  of  the 
last  ten  lines  of  the  canto: 

'Or  questa  e  ad  udir  si  cosa  nuova,'  145 

Rispose,  'che  gran  segno  h  che  Dio  t'  ami; 
Per5  col  prego  tuo  talor  mi  giova. 

E  chieggioti  per  quel  che  tu  piu  brami,  148 

Se  mai  calchi  la  terra  di  Toscana, 
Che  a'  miei  propinqui  tu  ben  mi  rinfami. 


46        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Tu  li  vedrai  tra  quella  gente  vana  151 

Che  spera  in  Talamone,  e  perderagli 

Piu  di  speranza,  che  a  trovar  la  Diana; 
Ma  piu  vi  metteranno  gli  ammiragli.'  154 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 

145        OR 
148       E 

151  T 

154  M 

Read:  morte 

Note  in  the  first  line  of  the  preceding  terzina,  line  142, 
the  words:  E  vivo  sono. 

In  Moore's  text  the  first  word  of  this  passage  is  0.  I  have 
adopted  the  reading  Or  of  Toynbee  and  Casini.  If  the  acrostic 
is  accepted  as  intentional  it  establishes  Or  as  the  correct 
reading. 


ACROSTICS  ON  OTHER  FRAMES 

In  addition  to  the  acrostics  that  appear  on  the  first  lines 
of  four  terzine  there  are  others  that  appear  on  the  first 
lines  of  more  or  less  than  four  terzine.  The  following  is  an 
example  of  an  acrostic  that  appears  on  the  first  lines  of  three 
terzine.  The  passage  is  Par.  xxii.  28-36,  which  reads: 

E  la  maggiore  e  la  piu  luculenta  28 

Di  quelle  margarite  innanzi  fessi, 
Per  far  di  se  la  mia  voglia  contenta. 

Poi  dentro  a  lei  udi':  'Se  tu  vedessi,  31 

Com'  io,  la  carita  che  tra  noi  arde, 
Li  tuoi  concetti  sarebbero  espressi; 

Ma  perche  tu  aspettando  non  tarde  34 

Air  alto  fine,  io  ti  faro  risposta 
Pure  al  pensier  di  che  si  ti  riguarde. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  three  terzine: 


ACROSTICS  47 

28  E 

31         PO 
34         MA 

Read:  poema 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xv.  76-84,  consists  of  three 
terzine : 

Perocch6  il  Sol,  che  v'  allumd  ed  arse  76 

Col  caldo  e  con  la  luce,  e  si  iguali, 

Che  tutte  simiglianze  sono  scarse. 
Ma  voglia  ed  argomento  nei  mortali,  79 

Per  la  cagion  ch'  a  voi  e  manifesta, 

Diversamente  son  pennuti  in  ali, 
Ond'  io  che  son  mortal,  mi  sento  in  questa    82 

Disagguaglianza,  e  per6  non  ringrazio, 

Se  non  col  core,  alia  paterna  festa. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  these  three  terzine: 


76 

PE 

79 

MA 

81 

0 

Read:  poema 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xi.   1-9,  contains  another 
acrostic  on  the  first  lines  of  three  terzine: 


*0  Padre  nostro,  che  nei  cieli  stai, 
Non  circonscritto,  ma  per  piii  amore 
Che  ai  primi  efFetti  di  lassu  tu  hai, 

Laudato  sia  il  tuo  nome  e  il  tuo  valore 
Da  ogni  creatura,  com'  e  degno 
Di  render  grazie  al  tuo  dolce  vapore. 

Vegna  ver  noi  la  pace  del  tuo  regno, 
Che  noi  ad  essa  non  potem  da  noi, 
S'  ella  non  vien,  con  tutto  nostro  ingegno. 


Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  three  terzine: 


48        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

I        o 

4        L 
7  VE 

Read:  velo 

The  word  ingegnOy  line  9,  is,  as  often,  a  hint. 

Following  is  an  example  of  an  acrostic  on  the  last  line  of  a 
canto  and  the  first  lines  of  the  two  preceding  terzine,  Purg. 
xvii.  133-139: 

Altro  ben  e  che  non  fa  1'  uom  felice;  133 

Non  e  felicita,  non  e  la  buona 

Essenza,  d'  ogni  ben  frutto  e  radice. 
L'  amor  ch'  ad  esso  troppo  s'  abbandona,     136 

Di  sopra  noi  si  piange  per  tre  cerchi; 

Ma  come  tripartito  si  ragiona, 
Tacciolo,  acciocche  tu  per  te  ne  cerchi.'         139 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  two  preceding  terzine: 

136       l'am 

139  TA 

Read:  l'amata 

This  is  a  sort  of  "potence,"  as  the  acrostic  word  begins  on 
Uamor.  l'amata  appears  also  in  the  acrostic  at  the  end  of 
Par.  xxxiii.  (see  p.  30). 

Following  is  an  example  of  an  acrostic  on  the  first  lines  of 
five  terzine,  Par.  xxix.  61-75: 

Perche  le  viste  lor  furo  esaltate  61 

Con  grazia  illuminante,  e  con  lor  merto, 
Si  ch'  hanno  piena  e  ferma  volontate. 

E  non  voglio  che  dubbi  ma  sie  certo,  64 

Che  ricever  la  grazia  e  meritorio, 
Secondo  che  1'  afFetto  gli  e  aperto. 

Omai  dintorno  a  questo  consistorio  67 

Puoi  contemplare  assai,  se  le  parole 
Mie  son  ricolte,  senz'  altro  aiutorio. 

Ma  perche  in  terra  per  le  vostre  scuole  70 

Si  legge  che  1'  angelica  natura 
E  tal  che  intende  e  si  ricorda  e  vuole, 


ACROSTICS  49 

Ancor  diro,  perche  tu  veggi  pura  73 

La  verita  che  laggiu  si  confonde, 
Equivocando  in  si  fatta  lettura. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  five  terzine  are: 

61       P 

64        E 

67       o 

70       M 

73       A 
Read;  poema 

Following  is  an  example  of  an  acrostic  on  the  first  lines  of 
six  terzine,  Purg.  xvi.  67-84: 

Voi  che  vivete,  ogni  cagion  recate  67 

Pur  suso  al  ciel,  cosi  come  se  tutto 

Movesse  seco  di  necessitate. 
Se  cosi  fosse,  in  voi  fora  distrutto  70 

Libero  arbitrio,  e  non  fora  giustizia, 

Per  ben  letizia,  e  per  male  aver  lutto. 
Lo  cielo  i  vostri  movimenti  inizia,  73 

Non  dico  tutti:  ma,  posto  ch'  io  il  dica, 

Lume  v'  e  dato  a  bene  ed  a  malizia, 
E  libero  voler,  che,  se  fatica  7^ 

Nelle  prime  battaglie  col  ciel  dura, 

Poi  vince  tutto,  se  ben  si  nutrica. 
A  maggior  forza  ed  a  miglior  natura  79 

Liberi  soggiacete,  e  quella  cria 

La  mente  in  voi,  che  il  ciel  non  ha  in  sua  cura. 
Pero,  se  il  mondo  presente  disvia,  82 

In  voi  e  la  cagione,  in  voi  si  cheggia, 

Ed  io  te  ne  saro  or  vera  spia. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  Hnes  of 
these  six  terzine: 


67 

V 

70 

SE 

73 

L 

76 

E 

79 

AM 

82 

PER 

Read:  peremas  vel 


50        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Following  is  an  example  of  an  acrostic  on  four  lines,  Par.  x. 

43-46: 

Perch'  io  lo  ingegno,  1'  arte  e  1'  uso  chiami,      43 
Si  nol  direi  che  mai  s'  immaginasse, 
Ma  creder  piiossi,  e  di  veder  si  brami. 

E  se  le  fantasia  nostra  son  basse  46 

Consider  on  these  four  lines  the  following  marginal  letters: 


43 

PER 

44 

s 

45 

MA 

46 

E 

Read:  F'Eremas 

There  is  a  hint  in  the  words  ingegno  and  arte. 

Another  acrostic  on  four  lines  appears  in  the  following 
passage,  Prtr,  viii.  100-103: 

E  non  pur  le  nature  provvedute  100 

Son  nella  mente  ch'  e  da  se  perfetta, 

Ma  esse  insieme  con  la  lor  salute. 
Perche  quantunque  questo  arco  saetta,      103 

Consider  on  these  four  lines  the  following  marginal  letters: 


100 

E 

lOI 

s 

102 

MA 

103 

PER 

:  peremas 

Following  is  an   acrostic  on   a  single   terzina,  Par.  xxv. 
28-30: 

Ridendo  allora  Beatrice  disse: 
'Inclita  vita,  per  cui  la  larghezza 
Delia  nostra  basilica  si  scrisse. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  three  lines: 

28  R 

29  I 

30  DE 

Read:  ride 


ACROSTICS  51 

This  is  a  sort  of  "potence,"  as  the  acrostic  word  begins  on 
Ridendo. 

Another  acrostic  on  the  three  lines  of  a  single  terzina 
appears  in  the  following  passage,  Par.  x.  52-54: 

E  Beatrice  incomincio:  'Ringrazia, 
Ringrazia  il  Sol  degli  Angeli,  ch'  a  questo 
Sensibil  t'  ha  levato  per  sua  grazia.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  three  lines: 
52       E 

54       s 
Read:  rise 

Compare  rise  with  the  foregoing  ride,  which  expresses  the 
same  idea  in  connection  with  Beatrice. 

Another  example  of  an  acrostic  on  the  three  lines  of  a 
single  terzina  appears  in  the  following  passage,  Purg.  xx.  1-3 : 

Contra  miglior  voler  voler  mal  pugna; 
Onde  contra  il  piacer  mio,  per  piacerli, 
Trassi  dell'  acqua  non  sazia  la  spugna. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  three  lines: 

1  c 

2  ON 

3  TRA 

Read:  contra 

This  is  a  potence,  as  the  acrostic  word  begins  on  Contra. 
The   following   passage.   Par.   i.    85-87,   consists   of  one 
terzina: 

Ond'  ella,  che  vedea  me  si  com'  io, 

A  quietarmi  1'  animo  commosso, 

Pria  ch'  io  a  domandar,  la  bocca  aprio, 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  three  lines: 

85  o 

86  A 

87  PRI 

Read:  aprio 


52        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

This  repeats  the  word  aprio  in  the  text. 
The  following  passage,  Inf.  xvi.   88-90,  consists  of  one 
terzina: 

Un  ammen  non  saria  potuto  dirsi 
Tosto  cosi,  com'  ei  furo  spariti: 
Perche  al  Maestro  parve  di  partirsi. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  three  lines: 

88  UN 

89  TO 

90  p 

Read:  punto 

Ammen  is  in  a  sense  a  punto. 

Following  is  one  terzina,  Purg.  vii.  16-18: 

*0  gloria  de'  Latin,'  disse,  'per  cui 
Mostro  cio  che  potea  la  lingua  nostra, 
O  pregio  eterno  del  loco  ond'  io  fui. 

The  initials  of  the  lines  of  this  terzina  are: 

16  o 

17  M 

18  o 

Read:  omo 

OMO,  as  a  form  of  uomo,  appears  frequently  in  the  crypto- 
grams in  the  Divina  Commedia. 

The  foregoing  acrostics  are  sufficient  to  illustrate  the 
structure  of  the  shorter  acrostics  which  I  have  discovered  in 
the  Divina  Commedia.  With  the  exception  of  the  necessarily 
brief  suggestion  of  the  implications  of  the  acrostics  at  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  the  four  main  divisions  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  I  have  not  attempted  to  explain  the  meaning  of 
the  acrostics  shown  in  the  present  chapter  in  relation  to  the 
meaning  of  the  poem.  The  whole  question  of  meaning  is 
deferred  to  succeeding  chapters. 


Chapter  III 
SIGNATURES 


Chapter  III 
SIGNATURES 


THERE  is  apparently  but  a  single  instance  of  Dante's 
use  of  his  own  name  in  the  Divina  Commedia;  it  occurs, 
Purg.  XXX.  ^^,  in  the  words  with  which  Beatrice  addresses 
him.  And  apparently  Dante  is  seeking  to  excuse  himself  for 
using  his  name  when  he  says,  lines  62-63: 

mi  volsi  al  suon  del  nome  mio, 
Che  di  necessita  qui  si  registra. 

The  necessity,  apparently,  is  that  his  name  occurs  in  the 
words  of  Beatrice  which  he  is  obliged  to  record.  The  excuse, 
if  it  is  an  excuse,  may  be  related  to  the  opinion,  expressed  in 
the  Convivio,  i.  2,  8-17:  Parlare  alcuno  di  se  medesimo  pare 
non  licito  .  .  .  Non  si  concede  per  li  rettorici  alcuno  di  se 
medesimo  senza  necessaria  cagione  parlare. 

Now  the  duplicities  of  Dante's  language  are  such  that  he 
repeats  the  mention  of  his  name  in  the  very  words  with  which 
he  excuses  it.  In  his  reference  to  his  name,  which,  as  he  says, 
di  necessita  qui  si  registra^  Dante  may  be  understood  to  be 
saying  that  his  name  is  "registered  here"  in  the  words:  di 
necessita;  that  is,  that  the  words:  di  necessita, are  the  form 
which  he  here  uses  for  his  signature. 

But  how  can  di  necessita  be  deciphered  as  a  signature 
of  dante  ?  The  hint  for  the  method  of  deciphering  is  given 
in  the  words,  lines  58-59: 

Quasi  ammiraglio,  che  in  poppa  ed  in  prora 
Viene  a  veder, 

and,  line  62: 

mi  volsi  al  suon  del  nome  mio. 

[55] 


56        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

There  are  here  suggested  the  sweeping  glance  that  looks 
fore  and  aft,  and  the  idea  of  turning  a.t  the  sound  of  dantte. 
Let  us  examine  now  the  two  words  of  the  signature  di 
NECESSITA.  Note,  first,  that  the  word  di  is  also  the  spelt 
form  of  the  letter  d,  as  which  it  may  be  at  once  considered. 
We  have  then  for  the  signature: 

D    NECESSITA 

Turn,  now,  fore  and  aft,  and  keep  on  so  turning.  In  other 
words,  read,  first,  the  first  letter,  or  d;  second,  the  last  letter, 
or  a;  third,  the  letter  next  the  first  letter,  or  n;  fourth,  the 
letter  next  the  last  letter,  or  t;  and  fifth,  the  letter  nearest 
the  front  again,  or  e.  The  letters  remaining  spell  cessi,  or 
"stop,"  so  that  the  cryptogram  directs  the  decipherer  to 
stop  as  soon  as  he  has  spelt  dante.  This  spelling  device  is 
perfectly  regular.  Instead  of  being  read  in  a  straight  sequence, 
the  letters  are  to  be  read  in  a  sequence  of  regular  alternations 
between  the  letters  at  the  extreme  left  and  the  extreme 
right. 

The  regularity  of  the  device  will  appear  by  numbering 
the  letters  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  to  be  read: 

D  N  E         cessi         T         A 

^        3       S  42 

This  hidden  signature  of  Dante  is  one  of  a  large  number 
contained  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  In  the  present  chapter 
I  will  show  some  of  these  signatures  and  the  cryptographic 
devices  on  which  they  are  based.  Many  of  the  signatures  will 
have  a  value  that  cannot  be  overestimated  for  illuminating 
some  of  the  obscurest  passages  in  the  poem. 


ACROSTIC  SIGNATURES 

In  connection  with  the  letter  cluster  shown  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter  at  the  beginning  of  Purg.  i.  in  which  Dante 
signs  his  poem:  poema:  ecco  dante,  see  the  last  ten  lines  of 
Purg.  xxxii.  1 51-160: 


SIGNATURES  57 

E  come  perche  non  gli  fosse  tolta,  151 

Vidi  di  costa  a  lei  dritto  un  gigante, 

E  baciavansi  insieme  alcuna  volta: 
Ma  perche  1'  occhio  cupido  e  vagante  154 

A  me  rivolse,  quel  feroce  drudo 

La  flagello  dal  capo  infin  le  piante. 
Poi  di  sospetto  pieno  e  d'  ira  crudo,  157 

Disciolse  il  mostro,  e  trassel  per  la  selva 

Tanto,  che  sol  di  lei  mi  fece  scudo 
Alia  puttana  ed  alia  nuova  belva.  160 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 

151       E 

154         M 
157         PC 
160         A 

Read: poema 

But  this  is  not  the  only  acrostic  in  the  passage,  for  there 
is  another  on  the  lines  between  the  lines  already  used  to  spell 
POEMA.  The  hnes  between  the  lines  already  used,  151,  154, 
157,  and  160,  are  lines  152,  153,  155,  156,  158,  and  159. 
Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


152 

V 

153 

e 

155 

A 

156 

L 

158 

D 

159 

TAN 

Read:  vela  dant 

DANT  is  a  form  that,  as  we  shall  see,  Dante  uses  else- 
where. The  acrostic  poema  on  the  ten-Hne  frame  may  be 
understood,  since  it  appears  on  the  salient  and  enclosing 
Unes  of  the  passage,  to  veil  the  acrostic  on  the  intervening 
lines.  In  other  words,  poema  vela  dant;  the  poem  is  the 
veil  behind  which  Dante  is  hidden. 

A  possible  hint  of  the  cryptographic  intention  may  be 


58        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

seen  in  the  words  disciolse  il  mostro  and  occhio  .  .  .  vagante 
a  me.  Dante  is  here  associated  with  the  piittana^  as  he  is  in 
InJ.  xviii.  127-136  (see  pp.  59-60).  The  symbolism  of  this 
association  is  explained  in  Chapter  VI,  pp.  179-80. 

Contrasting  with  this  acrostic  signature  which  appears 
as  subsidiary  to  another  acrostic  built  on  the  ten-line  frame 
are  others  in  which  the  ten-line  frame  is  used  for  the  signa- 
ture itself.  An  example  occurs  in  Par.  xxvi.  94-105: 

Devoto  quanto  posso  a  te  supplico  94 

Perche  mi  parli;  tu  vedi  mia  voglia, 
E  per  udirti  tosto  non  la  dice' 

Tal  volta  un  animal  coperto  broglia  97 

Si  che  r  afFetto  convien  che  si  paia 
Per  lo  seguir  che  face  a  lui  I'invoglia; 

E  similmente  1'  anima  primaia  100 

Mi  facea  trasparer  per  la  coperta 
Quant'  ella  a  compiacermi  venia  gaia. 

Indi  spiro:  'Senz'  essermi  profferta  103 

Da  te,  la  voglia  tua  discerno  meglio 
Che  tu  qualunque  cosa  t'  e  piii  certa. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  these  four  terzine: 


94 

D 

97 

TA 

100 

E 

103 

IN 

l',  DANTE 

Read; 

Notice  in  connection  with  this  acrostic  signature  the  line 
on  which  it  ends,  line  103,  and  the  line  next  following. 
Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


103 

IN 

104 

DA 

Read: 

l',  DANTE 

TE 


The  repetition  on  lines  103-104  of  the  words  i',  dante, 
which  appear  on  the  ten-line  frame,  is  strong  confirmation 
of  the  intentional  character  of  both  acrostics,  and  the  subject 


SIGNATURES  59 

of  the  passage  itself  confirms  the  intention.  The  subject  is 
Adam,  in  whom,  as  the  father  of  mankind,  Dante  exists. 
Moreover,  the  words: 

Mi  facea  trasparer  per  la  coperta, 

say  plainly  enough  that  dante  may  be  made  to  appear 
through  the  covering  of  the  text.  Un  animal  coperto  and 
convien  che  si  paia  are  likewise  expressions  which  may  be 
taken  as  having  a  similar  reference  to  the  cryptogram.  It  is 
to  be  noticed  also  that  the  passage  as  a  whole  begins  with  the 
letters  de,  the  first  and  last  of  dante  and  constantly  used 
in  the  poem,  either  as  de  or  ed,  to  indicate  both  the  name 
itself  and  the  presence  of  a  cryptogram  in  the  passage  of 
which  they  are  the  beginning  or  the  end.  The  passage  is  fur- 
ther bounded,  first  and  last,  by  the  significant  letters  d,  line 
94,  and  I,  line  103.  These  letters  also  are  used  by  Dante  to 
suggest  his  own  name  and  to  indicate  the  limits  of  crypto- 
graphic passages. 

Another  example  of  a  signature  on  the  ten-line  frame 
appears  in  Inf.  xviii.  127-136: 

Appresso  cio  lo  Duca:  *Fa  che  pinghe/  127 

Mi  disse,  'il  viso  un  poco  piu  avante, 
Si  che  la  faccia  ben  con  gli  occhi  attinghe 

Di  quella  sozza  e  scapigliata  fante,  130 

Che  la  si  graffia  con  1'  unghie  merdose, 
Ed  or  s'  accoscia,  ed  ora  e  in  piede  stante. 

Taide  e  la  puttana,  che  rispose  ^  133 

Al  drudo  suo,  quando  disse:  "Ho  io  grazie 
Grandi  appo  te?"  "Anzl  meravigliose." 

E  quinci  sien  le  nostre  viste  sazie.'  136 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  acrostic  signature  which 
appears  here  is  that  it  occurs  with  another  acrostic  on  the 
same  hnes.  The  two  acrostics  are  thus  concurrent.  Before 
showing  the  dante  signature  I  will  show  the  acrostic  that 
coincides  with  it.  Consider  first  the  following  marginal 
letters  of  the  last  line,  the  last  of  the  canto,  and  of  the  first 
lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


6o        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 


127 

A 

130 

DI 

133 

T 

136 

E 

Read: 

TAIDE 

Taide  is  the  name  of  the  harlot  mentioned  in  the  text, 
and  the  acrostic,  since  it  repeats  a  word  of  the  text  and  uses 
the  initial  of  that  word  as  one  of  its  own  letters,  is  a 
"potence."  The  repetition  in  the  acrostic  of  the  name  in  the 
text  is  confirmation  of  the  intention  of  the  acrostic. 

The  signature  dante  to  which  I  referred  as  concurrent 
with  this  acrostic  taide  appears  by  taking  on  the  same 
lines  the  following  marginal  letters: 

127  a 
130  D 
133       T 

136  E    QUIN 

Read:  dante  qui 

The  text  contains  an  unmistakable  hint  that  a  signature 
is  concealed.  This  hint  is  found  in  the  double  meaning  of  the 
following  words  of  Virgil  to  Dante  himself,  127-129: 

Fa  che  pinghe 
un  poco  il  viso  piu  avante, 
Si  che  la  faccia  ben  con  gli  occhi  attinghe. 

If  these  words  are  taken  as  having  the  double  meaning  of 
which  they  are  capable,  Dante  is  told  to  show  himself.  This 
command,  moreover,  is  immediately  followed  by  a  line,  130, 
of  which  the  first  letter,  d,  and  the  last  letters,  ante,  spell 
DANTE.  For  a  discussion  of  this  device  and  for  other  examples, 
see  pp.  71-4. 

The  two  concurrent  acrostics:  taide  and  dante  qui,  show 
Dante  and  the  puttana  together.  It  is  in  harmony  with  the 
deeper  symbolism  of  the  poem  that  hero  and  harlot  are 
involved  with  each  other  (see  pp.  179-80). 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xx.  loo-iii,  consists  of 
four  terzine: 


SIGNATURES  6i 

Tanto  e  risposta  a  tutte  nostra  prece,  loo 

Quanto  il  di  dura;  ma,  quand'  e'  s'  annotta, 

Contrario  suon  prendemo  in  quella  vece. 
Noi  ripetiam  Pigmalion  allotta,  103 

Cui  traditore  e  ladro  e  patricida 

Fece  la  voglia  sua  dell'  oro  ghiotta; 
E  la  miseria  dell'  avaro  Mida,  106 

Che  segui  alia  sua  domanda  ingorda, 

Per  la  qual  sempre  convien  che  si  rida. 
Del  folle  Acan  ciascun  poi  si  ricorda,  109 

Come  furo  le  spoglie,  si  che  l'  ira 

Di  Josue  qui  par  ch'  ancor  lo  morda. 


Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters: 


100         TA 

103          N 

106          E 

109         D 

Read: 

DANTE 

The  following  passage,  Par.  vi.  61-70,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 


Quel  che  fe'poi  ch'egli  usci  di  Ravenna,         61 

E  salto  Rubicon,  fu  di  tal  volo 

Che  nol  seguiteria  lingua  ne  penna. 
In  ver  la  Spagna  rivolse  lo  stuolo;  64 

Poi  ver  Durazzo,  e  Farsalia  percosse 

Si  ch'  al  Nil  caldo  si  senti  del  duolo. 
Antandro  e  Simoenta,  onde  si  mosse,  67 

Rivide,  e  la  dov'  Ettore  si  cuba, 

E  mal  per  Tolommeo  poi  si  riscosse: 
Da  indi  scese  folgorando  a  Juba;  70 

Poscia  si  volse  nel  vostro  occidente, 

Dove  sentia  la  Pompeiana  tuba. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  these  four  terzine: 


62        THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

6l  QUE 

64  I 

67  ANT 

70  D 

Read:  dante  qui 

The  first  four  terzine  of  Par.  ii  are: 

0  voi  che  siete  in  piccioletta  barca, 

Desiderosi  d'  ascoltar,  seguiti 

Retro  al  mio  legno  che  cantando  varca, 
Tornate  a  riveder  li  vostri  hti,  4 

Non  vi  mettete  in  pelago;  che  forse 

Perdendo  me  rimarreste  smarriti. 
L'  acqua  ch'  io  prendo  giammai  non  si  corse:         7 

Minerva  spira,  e  conducemi  Apollo, 

E  nove  Muse  mi  dimostran  1'  Orse. 
Voi  altri  pochi,  che  drizzaste  il  collo  10 

Per  tempo  al  pan  degli  Angeli,  del  quale 

Vivesi  qui,  ma  non  sen  vien  satollo. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

I  o 

4  T 

7  L 

10  VO 

Read:  volto 

Compare  volto  with  the  idea  of  turning  in  the  text. 
The  meaning  of  this  acrostic  is  repeated  in  the  acrostic 
on  the  first  four  lines  of  the  canto: 

I       o 

1         D 

3  R 

4  TORNATE 

Read:  rotor,  dante 

Rotor  is  the  first  person  singular,  present  indicative 
passive,  of  the  Latin  ro/o,  "I  revolve."  The  use  of  this  word 
in  connection  with  a  signature  is  a  reference,  as  in  gira 


SIGNATURES  63 

(see  p.  96),  to  the  cryptographic  device  of  revolving  the 
letters  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  the  hidden  reading. 
"Revolve,"  is  the  word  used  to  hint  at  the  cryptogram  in 
the  anonymous  letter  to  Malvolio,  in  Twelfth  Night. 

There  is  reason  to  suspect  the  existence  of  a  cryptogram 
in  any  passage  in  the  Divina  Commedia  that  shows  a 
marked  symmetry  in  the  repetition  of  a  word  or  phrase.  Such 
a  repetition  occurs  in  the  four  terzine,  Purg.  vi.  106-117: 

Vieni  a  veder  Montecchi  e  Cappelletti,  106 

Monaldi  e  Filippeschi,  uom  senza  cura: 
Color  gia  tristi,  e  questi  con  sospetti. 

Vien,  crudel,  vieni,  e  vedi  la  pressura  109 

De'  tuoi  gentili,  e  cura  lor  magagne, 
E  vedrai  Santafior  com'  e  sicura. 

Vieni  a  veder  la  tua  Roma  che  piagne,  112 

Vedova  e  sola,  e  di  e  notte  chiama: 
'Cesare  mio,  perche  non  m'  accompagne?' 

Vieni  a  veder  la  gente  quanto  s'  ama;  115 

E  se  nulla  di  noi  pieta  ti  move, 
A  vergognar  ti  vien  della  tua  fama. 

The  cryptogram  is  concealed  here  on  all  the  lines  except 
the  four  lines  beginning  with  the  same  word:  Vien.  Consider 
on  the  second  and  third  lines  of  each  of  the  four  terzine  the 
following  marginal  letters: 


106 

[VIENlJ 

107 

MON 

108 

COL 

109 

[vien] 

no 

DE  T 

III 

E 

112 

[vieni] 

113 

VE 

114 

C 

115 

[vieni] 

116 

E 

117 

A 

Read:  velo.  ecco  me,  dante 


64        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  following  passage,  hif.  xvii.  1-12,  consists  of  the  first 
four  terzine  of  the  canto: 

'EccQ  la  fiera  con  la  coda  aguzza, 

Che  passa  i  monti,  e  rompe  i  muri  e  1'  arm!; 

Ecco  colei  che  tutto  il  niondo  appuzza.' 
Si  coniincio  lo  mio  Duca  a  parlarmi,  4 

Ed  accennoUe  che  venisse  a  proda, 

Vicino  al  fin  de'  passeggiati  marmi: 
E  quella  sozza  imagine  di  froda  7 

Sen  venne,  ed  arrivo  la  testa  e  il  busto; 

Ma  in  sulla  riva  non  trasse  la  coda. 
La  faccia  sua  era  faccia  d'  uom  giusto;  10 

Tanto  benigna  avea  di  fuor  la  pelle, 

E  d'  un  serpente  tutto  1'  altro  fusto. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters: 

I  E 

4       s 

7         E    QU 

10  LA 

Read:  sequela 

The  "sequel"  is  to  be  found  in  the  marginal  letters  of  the 
last  two  lines  of  the  passage: 

11  TAN 

12  ED 

Read:  dante 

The   following  passage,   Par.  i.    13-24,   consists   of  four 
terzine: 

O  buono  Apollo,  air  ultimo  lavoro  13 

Fammi  del  tuo  valor  si  fatto  vaso, 

Come  domandi  a  dar  1'  amato  alloro. 
Infino  a  qui  1'  un  giogo  di  Parnaso  16 

I  Assai  mi  fu,  ma  or  con  ambedue 

M'  e  uopo  entrar  nell'  aringo  rimaso. 
Entra  nel  petto  mio,  e  spira  tue  19 

Si  come  quando  Marsia  traesti 

Delia  vagina  delle  membra  sue. 


SIGNATURES  65 

O  divina  virtu,  se  mi  ti  presti  22 

Tanto  che  1'  ombra  del  beato  regno 
Segnata  nel  mio  capo  io  manifesti, 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 


13 

0 

16 

I 

19 

ENTR 

22 

0 

10 

ENTRO 

Read; 

Dante  is  entering  nelP  aringo  rimaso,  the  last  stage  of  his 
journey.  This  passage  follows  immediately  after  the  acrostic 
VELA  PENE  (see  pp.  29-30).  The  two  acrostics  are  to  be  read 
together  in  the  light  of  the  symbolism,  explained  in  Chapter 

VII,  of  DANTE  as  PENE. 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  lines  21-24: 


21 

DE 

22 

0 

23 

TAN 

24 

SEGN 

SEGNO  DANTE 

Read; 

All  but  the  first  of  the  cryptograms  shown  so  far  in  this 
chapter  are  acrostics  appearing  on  the  ten-line  frame  or 
acrostics  subsidiary  to  them.  But  the  ten-line  frame  is  not 
the  only  frame  on  which  the  acrostics  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
are  constructed.  The  following  is  an  acrostic  signature  on 
the  first  lines  of  three  terzine,  Purg.  xxix.  16-24: 

Ed  ecco  un  lustro  subito  trascorse  16 

Da  tutte  parti  per  la  gran  foresta, 

Tal  che  di  balenar  mi  mise  in  forse. 
Ma  perche  il  balenar,  come  vien,  resta,  19 

E  quel  durando  piu  e  piu  splendeva, 

Nel  mio  pensar  dicea:  *Che  cosa  e  questa?' 
Ed  una  melodia  dolce  correva  22 

Per  r  aer  luminoso;  onde  buon  zelo 

Mi  fe'  riprender  1'  ardimento  d'  Eva, 


66        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  initials  of  the  first  hnes  of  these  terzine  are: 

i6        E 
19       M 

22  E 

Read:  e  me 

Note  that  the  first  and  last  lines  on  which  this  acrostic 
reading  is  found  begin  respectively  with  ed. 

Consider  on  the  two  lines  following  the  last  ed,  the 
last  two  lines  of  the  last  terzina,  the  following  marginal 
letters: 

23  PER 

24  MI 

Read:  per  mi 

This  reading  echoes  the  acrostic  e  me. 

The  signature  which  appears  in  this  passage  and  which 
seems  to  be  hinted  at  by  the  acrostics:  e  me  and  per  mi, 
appears  on  the  marginal  letters  of  all  the  lines  of  the  seven- 
line  frame  that  is  so  conspicuously  and  symmetrically 
bounded  at  each  end  by  ed.  Consider  the  following  marginal 
letters  of  these  lines: 


16 

e 

17 

D 

18 

T 

19 

MA 

20 

E 

21 

N 

22 

E 

Read:  e  me,  dante 

It  may  be  that  there  is  a  hint  of  the  signature  in  the  use  of 
the  word  durando^  line  20,  with  its  phonetic  suggestion  of 
Durante^  the  early  form  of  Dante. 

Hints  in  the  text  immediately  preceding  and  following  the 
acrostic  passage  are  the  words,  line  15:  Frate  mio,  guarda  ed 
ascolta;  and,  line  27: 

Non  sofFerse  di  star  sotto  alcun  velo. 


SIGNATURES  67 

Guarda  ed  ascolta  may  be  taken  to  mean:  "Look,  hear 
D.  .  .e."  The  allusion  to  the  veil  may  likewise  be  understood 
as  having  a  reference  to  the  veil  of  the  text  that  hides  the 
cryptogram. 

The   following  passage,  Par.  xxxii.   136-144,  consists  of 
three  terzine: 

E  contro  al  maggior  Padre  di  famiglia  136 

Siede  Lucia,  che  mosse  la  tua  Donna, 

Quando  chinavi  a  ruinar  le  ciglia. 
Ma  perche  il  tempo  fugge  che  t'  assonna,  139 

Qui  farem  punto,  come  buon  sartore 

Che,  com'  egli  ha  del  panno,  fa  la  gonna; 
E  drizzeremo  gli  occhi  al  primo  amore,  142 

Si  che,  guardando  verso  lui,  penetri, 

Quant'  e  possibil,  per  lo  suo  fulgore. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  three  terzine  are: 

136       E 

139       M 

142  E 

Read:  e  me 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  third  terzina: 

142  ED 

143  SI 

144  quant'e 

Read:  se'  qui,  dante 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxvii.  43-48,  consists  of  two 
terzine: 

Ma  per  acquisto  d'  esto  viver  lieto  -      43 

E  Sisto  e  Pio  e  Calisto  ed  Urbano 

Sparser  lo  sangue  dopo  molto  fleto. 
Non  fu  nostra  intenzion  ch'  a  destra  mano      46 

Dei  nostri  successor  parte  sedesse. 

Parte  dall'  altra,  del  popol  cristiano; 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  two  terzine: 


68        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

43  MA 

46  NO 

Read:  noma 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the 
lines: 


43 

MA 

44 

E 

45 

S 

46 

N 

47 

DE 

48 

PARTE 

Read:  peremas  dante 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xv.   19-24,  consists  of  two 
terzine: 

Tale,  dal  corno  che  in  destro  si  stende,      19 

Al  pie  di  quella  croce  corse  un  astro 

Delia  costellazion  che  li  risplende; 
Ne  si  parti  la  gemma  dal  suo  nastro,  22 

Ma  per  la  lista  radial  trascorse, 

Che  parve  foco  retro  ad  alabastro. 

Consider  first  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
four  lines: 

19  T 

20  A 

21  D 

22  ne 

Read:  dante 

In  the  lines  on  which  this  signature  appears  Dante  is 
describing  his  vision  of  his  ancestor  Cacciaguida,  who 
is  seen  like  a  star  moving  upon  the  cross  seen  at  the  same 
time.  There  is  a  suggestion  that  the  star  is  reflected  in  the 
gleaming  surface  of  the  cross,  and  this  reflection  is  repre- 
sented in  a  curious  way  by  a  second  signature  on  the  initials 
of  the  last  words  of  lines  22,  23,  and  24,  taken  in  connection 


SIGNATURES  69 

with  D  before  alabastro  of  line  24.  The  two  signatures  may  be 
shown  as  follows: 

19  T 

20  A 

21  D 

22  NE N 

23  T 

24  DA 

Read  on  the  initials  of  the  telestic  words,  lines  22,  23,  and 
24,  together  with  the  contiguous  d:  dant. 

It  is  natural  that  Dante  should  see  himself  (his  name) 
both  in  the  light  of  his  ancestor  and  as  reflected  in  the  cross, 
the  symbol  of  humanity  that  reflects,  necessarily,  the  char- 
acter of  the  human  individual.  The  telestic  dant  on  lines  22, 
23,  and  24,  is  the  cryptographic  reflection  of  the  acrostic 
DANTE  on  hnes  19,  20,  21,  and  22. 

The  following  passage.  Par.  i.  107-110,  consists  of  four 
lines: 

Deir  eterno  valore,  il  quale  e  fine 
Al  quale  e  fatta  la  toccata  norma. 
Neir  ordine  ch'  io  dico  sono  accline        109 
Tutte  nature,  per  diverse  sorti, 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  four  lines: 

107  D 

108  A 

109  NE 
no         T 

Read:  dante 

Hints  in  the  text  may  be  found  in  the  words,  forma ^  line 
104,  and  orma^  line  106. 

The  following  passage  is  InJ.  vi.  85-87: 

E  quegli:  'Ei  son  tra  le  anime  piu  nere; 
Diversa  colpa  giu  li  grava  al  fondo: 
Se  tanto  scendi,  li  potrai  vedere. 


70        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Consider   the   following  marginal   letters  on   these  lines: 

85  E   QU 

86  Di 

87  SE    TAN 

Read:  dante,  se'  qui 

Dante  here  identifies  himself  with  the  blacker  spirits,  as, 
indeed,  he  identifies  himself  with  all  that  he  sees.  Unlike 
Aeneas,  who  says  of  his  experience:  pars  magna  fui^  Dante, 
as  the  dreamer  of  the  universe,  identifies  himself  with  the 
whole  of  it. 

The  following  terzina  is  Inf.  xxxiii.  109-111: 

Ed  un  de'  tristi  della  fredda  crosta 
Grido  a  noi:  'O  anime  crudeli 
Tanto,  che  data  v'  e  I'ultima  posta. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  lines: 

109        ED 
no         GRIDO 
III  TAN 

Read:  grido  dante 

This  echoes  the  sense  of  the  text.  There  may  be  a  hint  in 
the  line  which  follows  this  passage: 

Levatemi  dal  viso  i  duri  veil. 

The  following  passage  consists  of  the  last  four  lines  of 
Inf.  xxiii : 

Appresso  il  Duca  a  gran  pass!  sen  gi,  145 

Turbato  un  poco  d'  ira  nel  sembiante: 
Ond'  io  dagl'  incarcati  mi  parti' 

Dietro  alle  poste  delle  care  piante.  148 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters: 

145  A 

146  t 

147  ON 

148  DIE 

Read:  10,  dante 


SIGNATURES  71 

STRING  CIPHERS 

The  last  line  of  the  foregoing  passage,  148,  contains  an 
example  of  the  "string"  cipher,  which  may  be  seen  in  the 
letters  which  I  here  capitalize: 

Dietro  AUe  poste  delle  care  piaNTE 

The  string  cipher  is  a  device  well  known  to  students  of 
cryptography.  The  device  consists  in  spelling  a  name  or  other 
word  or  words  in  such  a  way  that  the  first  letter  of  the  hidden 
word  is  the  first  letter  of  a  unit  of  text,  and  the  last  letter  of 
the  hidden  word  is  the  last  letter  of  the  unit  of  text,  and  each 
of  the  interior  letters  of  the  hidden  word,  spelled  in  regular 
order,  is  the  first  instance  of  that  letter  to  appear  in  the  unit 
of  text  after  the  letter  in  the  text  already  required  for  the 
preceding  letter  of  the  word.  There  are  certain  modifications 
of  this  method  not  indicated  in  the  foregoing  definition;  I 
have  not  defined  these  modifications  because  they  do  not 
appear  in  the  examples  of  the  string  cipher  which  I  have 
discovered  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  The  unit  of  text  in  which 
I  have  found  string  ciphers  in  the  Divina  Commedia  is  the 
single  line.  In  the  line  just  quoted  we  begin  with  d,  which  is 
the  first  letter  of  the  line,  the  line  being  a  definite  unit  of  text. 
We  then  take,  not  any  a,  but  the  next  a,  and  the  next  n,  and 
the  next  t,  and  the  next  e,  which  is  the  last  letter  of  the  line. 

Following  are  several  examples,  in  which  I  have  capitalized 
for  clarity  the  letters  of  the  cryptogram. 

Di  quellA  sozza  e  scapigliata  faNTE. 

— Inf.  xvlii.  130. 
De'  miei  mAggior  mi  fer  si  arrogaNTE. 

— Purg.  xi,  62. 
Del  quAl  ti  fasciaN  venTiquattro  piantE. 

— Par.  xii.  96. 
Dove  ANchise  fini  la  lunga  eTatE. 

— Par.  xix.  132. 
DinANzI  agli  occhi  miei  le  quaTtro  facE. 

— Par.  xxvii.  10. 
Ditene  dove  lA  moNTagna  giacE. 

— Purg.  iil.  76. 


72        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

DellA  molt'  aNni  lagrimaTa  pacE. 

—Purg.  X.  35. 
Diogenes,  ANassagora  e  TalE. 

— Inf.  iv.  137. 
Diretro  A  me  che  Non  era  piu  TalE. 

— Purg.  xxxi.  57. 
Dunque  cestui  che  tutte  quANTo  rapE 

— Par.  xxviii.  70. 
Di  che  il  polo  di  quA  tutto  quaNTo  ardE. 

— Purg.  viii.  90. 
DA  si  vil  padre  che  si  reNde  a  marTE. 

— Par.  viii.  132. 
Di  piegAr  cosi  piNTa  in  altra  partE. 

— Par.  i.  132. 
Due  ANgeli  con  due  spade  affocaTE. 

— Purg.  viii.  26. 
DAI  tuo  potere  e  dalla  tua  boNTatE. 

— Par.  xxxi.  83. 
DinANzi  a  me  non  fur  cose  creaTE. 

— /w/.  iii.  7. 
Di  guido  o  d'AlessaNdro  o  di  lor  fraTE. 

— Inf.  XXX.  jj. 
Di  pugliA  fu  del  suo  saNgue  dolenTE. 

— Inf.  xxviii,  9. 
DA  quella  parte  oNde  il  core  ha  la  genTE. 

— Purg.  X.  48. 
De'  nostri  sensi  ch'e  del  rimANenTE. 

— Inf.  XX vi.  115. 
Diretro  Al  sol  del  moNdo  senza  genTE. 

— Inf.  XX vi.  117. 
DA  queste  due  se  tu  ti  rechi  a  meNTE. 

— Inf.  xi.  106. 
DA  pigliar  occhi  per  aver  la  meNTE. 

— Par.  xxvii.  92. 
DA'  ciel  piovuti  che  stizzosameNTE. 

— Inf.  viii.  83. 
Di  voler  lor  pArlar  segretameNTE. 

— Inf.  viii.  87. 
Di  quel  ch'ei  fe'  col  bAiulo  segueNTE. 

— Par.  vi.  73. 
Di  bene  in  meglio  si  subitAmeNTE. 

—Par.  X.  38. 
Di  moise  legistA  e  ubbidieNTE. 

—Inf.  iv.  57. 


SIGNATURES  73 

DellA  carNe  d'adamo  ond'ei  si  vesTE. 

— Purg.  xi.  44. 
D'un  giro  e  d'un  girAre  e  d'uNa  seTE. 

— Par.  viii.  35. 
Di  fAre  allor  che  fuori  alcuN  si  meTtE. 

— Inf.  xxii.  105. 
Del  cui  lAtiNo  augusTin  si  provvidE. 

— Par.  X.  120. 
Del  sANgue  piu  che  sua  colpa  sorTillE. 

—Inf.  xii.  75. 
DellA  NosTra  basilica  si  scrissE. 

— Par.  xxv.  30. 
Divenner  membrA  che  Non  fur  mai  visTE. 

— Inf.  xxv.  75. 
Del  cui  nome  ne'  dei  fu  tANTa  litE. 

— Purg.  XV.  98. 
DANnando  se  danno  Tutta  sua  prolE. 

— Par.  vii.  27. 
Donne  mi  pArver  Non  da  ballo  sciolTE. 

— Par.  X.  79. 
Delia  sustANzie  che  T'appaion  tondE. 

— Par.  xxviii.  75. 
DicevA  I'uN  con  laTro  in  sul  gropponE. 

— Inf.  xxi.  loi. 
DAI  suo  priNcipio  ch'e  in  quesTo  tronconE. 

— Inf.  xxviii.  141. 
Dicendo  le  pArole  tue  sieN  conTE. 

—Inf.  X.  39. 
Debili  si  che  perlA  iN  bianca  fronTE. 

— Par.  iii.  14. 
Dolce  ch'io  vidi  primA  a  pie  del  moNTE. 

— Inf.  xxiv.  21. 
DAir  altra  spoNda  vanno  verso  il  monTE. 

— Inf.  xviii.  33. 
Deir  Alto  di  i  giroN  del  sacro  monTE. 

— Purg.  xix.  38. 
Del  vecchio  pAdre  Ne  il  debiTo  amorE. 

— Inf.  xxvi.  95. 

Di  pAradiso  taNTo  il  nostro  amorE. 

— Par.  xiv.  38. 
Del  romAN  principaTo  il  cui  valorE. 

—Purg.  X.  74. 
DellA  vera  cittade  almeN  la  TorrE. 

— Purg.  xvi.  96. 


74        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

DellA  quartaNa  ch'  ha  gla  I'unghie  smorTE. 

— Inf.  xvii.  86. 
DAir  altra  parte  m'eraN  le  devoTE. 

— Purg.  xiii.  82. 
Diverse  voce  FAN  giu  dolce  noTE. 

— Par.  vi.  124. 
DellA  corNice  onde  cader  si  puoTE. 

— Purg.  xiii.  80. 
Di  suA  poteNza  conTra  il  sommo  giovE. 

— Inf.  xxxi.  92. 
DA  molte  stelle  mi  vieN  quesTa  lucE. 

— Par.  XXV.  70. 
Del  nostro  pellicANo  e  quesTi  fuE. 

— Par.  XXV.  113. 

Perhaps  the  construction  of  the  foregoing  string  ciphers,  in 
which  the  reading  is  suspended  until  the  last  letter  of  the 
line,  will  be  more  clearly  evident  if  we  examine  two  lines  in 
which  this  suspension  does  not  occur: 

DA   deNTi   morsi  dElla  morte  avante. 

— Purg.  vii.  32. 

Here  the  reading  is  complete  on  an  indeterminate  place  in 
the  middle  of  the  line  and  there  is,  accordingly,  no  string 
cipher. 

Di  tANTa  plEnitudine  volante. 

— Par.  xxxi.  20. 

Here  again  the  reading  ends  before  the  end  of  the  line. 
It  may  be  that  since  these  lines  begin  with  d  and  end  with 
ANTE,  we  should  regard  them  as  containing  signatures,  but 
they  are  certainly  not  string  ciphers.  I  do  not  suggest  that  all 
the  string  ciphers  shown  above  are  intentional;  the  inten- 
tional character  of  some  of  them,  however,  seems  to  be  con- 
firmed by  hints  in  the  text. 


LETTER  SEQUENCES 

Dante  seems  to  use  as  a  cryptographic  device  sequences 
of  letters  which,  when  rearranged,  yield  the  cryptographic 
reading.  I  give  here  three  examples. 


SIGNATURES  75 

In  Purg.  xxlii.  91-92,  is  the  following  expression: 

Tant'e  a  Dio  piii  cara  e  piu  diletta 
La  vedovella  mia. 

Notice  in  line  91  the  letter  sequence:  nt  e  a  d.  These  letters 
may  be  rearranged  to  read  dante.  It  may  be  surmised  that 
Dante  set  his  signature  here  to  indicate  that  in  the  reference 
to  the  vedovella  he  had  in  mind  his  own  wife,  widowed  indeed 
by  his  exile. 

The  following  line  is  Par.  i.  10: 

Veramente  quant'io  del  regno  santo. 

Note  in  these  words  the  letter  sequence:  ant  10  de.  These 
letters  may  be  rearranged  into  a  signature:  10,  dante.  This 
signature  appears  on  the  last  line  of  the  ten-line  frame  of  the 
acrostic  vela  pene  (see  pp.  29-30). 
Line  8  of  the  same  canto  reads: 

Nostro  intelletto  si  profonda  tanto. 

The  letter  sequence  in  this  line:  nda  t  may  be  rearranged 
to  read:  dant. 

These  letter  sequences  are  like  the  one  in  Inf.  viii.  105 
(see  p.  79). 


ACROSTIC  SIGNATURES  WITH  MISSING  LETTERS 

There  are  in  the  Divina  Commedia  a  number  of  acrostic 
signatures  in  which  one  of  the  letters  of  the  signature  is 
apparently  missing.  In  every  such  instance  the  letter  which 
is  necessary  for  the  spelling  of  the  name  and  which  is  miss- 
ing from  the  acrostic  letters  is  indicated,  by  some  hint  in 
the  text,  as  existing  somewhere  in  the  interior  of  the  text. 
In  some  instances  the  letter  thus  apparently  missing  is  in- 
dicated, by  some  hint  in  the  text,  as  existing  in  some  equiva- 
lent substitute  which  the  text  supplies.  The  purpose  of 
thus  hiding  an  essential  letter  is  in  some  instances  to  render 
the  disguise  more  complete  and  in  other  instances  to  sug- 
gest some  symbolic  association  with  the  name. 


^e>       THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF   DANTE 

The  following  passage,  Par.  iv.  13-24,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Fe'  si  Beatrice,  qual  fe'  Daniello,  13 

Nabuccodonosor  levando  d'  ira, 

Che  r  avea  fatto  ingiustamente  fello, 
E  disse:  'lo  veggio  ben  come  ti  tira  16 

Uno  ed  altro  disio,  si  che  tua  cura 

Se  stessa  lega  si  che  fuor  non  spira. 
Tu  argomenti:  "Se  il  buon  voler  dura,       19 

La  violenza  altrui  per  qual  ragione 

Di  meritar  mi  scema  la  misura?" 
Ancor  di  dubitar  ti  da  cagione,  22 

Parer  tornarsi  l'  anime  alle  stelle, 

Secondo  la  sentenza  di  Platone. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 

13  Y 

16  E 

19  T 

22  AN 

Read: fante 

Fante  has  the  same  significance  as  fancello  or  fanciullo. 
With  this  acrostic  fante  Dante  identifies  himself  by  means  of 
an  acrostic  signature  on  the  same  lines.  Notice  that  in  the 
five  letters  of  the  acrostic  fante,  four:  ante,  occur  in  the 
spelling  of  dante.  If  the  f  of  fante  were  to  be  substituted 
by  a  D,  the  spelling  of  dante  would  be  complete.  That  this 
substitution  is  to  be  made  is  indicated  by  the  sense  of  the 
text.  According  to  line  13,  "Beatrice  did  what  Daniel  did." 
It  is  in  the  implications  of  these  significant  words  that  the 
substitution  of  d  for  f  is  indicated.  The  implication  of  these 
words  is  to  be  discovered  by  referring  to  the  incident  to  which 
Beatrice  here  refers;  her  reference,  as  appears  in  Dan.  ii,  is 
to  the  fact  that  Daniel  stood  before  the  king  and  interpreted  a 
dream.  What  Beatrice  did,  therefore,  in  doing  what  Daniel 
did,  was  to  make  Daniel  stand  before^  that  is,  at  the  front  of 
the  line,  and  so  replace  the  f  of  Fe  by  the  d  of  Daniello. 


SIGNATURES  77 

By  so  doing,  she  substitutes  the  acrostic  spelling  of  fante 
by  the  acrostic  spelling  of  dante.  By  this  identification  of  his 
own  name  with  fante  Dante  identifies  himself  as  the  child 
in  the  rebirth  symbolism  of  the  poem,  by  a  device  analogous 
to  that  by  which  he  identifies  his  own  name  with  the  acrostic 
NATi  (see  pp.  103-5). 

Further  hints  in  the  text  of  cryptic  intention  are  the  words: 
per  pari ar  distinto^  line  12,  which  immediately  precede  the 
terzine  containing  the  acrostic;  and:  lo  veggio  ben  come  ti  tira^ 
line  16.  Parlar  distinto  may  mean  not  only  "distinct  speech" 
but  also  "a  difi^erent  kind  of  speech,"  the  different  kind 
that  is  used  in  the  cryptogram.  And  the  words:  lo  veggio 
ben  come  ti  tira,  may  be  understood,  apart  from  the  context, 
as  alluding  to  how  clearly  the  letters  of  the  text  may  be  seen 
to  draw  out  the  acrostic  dante. 

An  example  of  an  acrostic  to  be  read  on  five  terzine  may  be 
seen  in  Inf.  viii.  94-108;  and  the  acrostic  reading  here  will 
show  another  signature  in  which  an  essential  letter  is  hidden 
in  the  body  of  the  text  in  order  to  add  to  the  disguise  and  also 
to  deepen  the  symbolism.  The  passage  is: 

Pensa,  Lettor,  se  io  mi  sconfortai  94 

Nel  suon  delle  parole  maledette: 
Ch'  io  non  credetti  ritornarci  mai. 

'O  caro  duca  mio,  che  piu  di  sette  97 

Volte  m'  hai  sicurta  renduta,  e  tratto 
D'  alto  periglio  che  incontra  mi  stette, 

Non  mi  lasciar,'  diss'  io,  'cosi  disfatto:  100 

E  se  '1  passar  piu  oltre  c'  e  negato, 
Ritroviam  1'  orme  nostre  insieme  ratto.' 

E  quel  signor  che  li  m'  avea  menato  103 

Mi  disse:  'Non  temer,  che  il  nostro  passo 
Non  ci  puo  torre  alcun:  da  tal  n'  e  dato. 

Ma  qui  m'  attendi;  e  lo  spirlto  lasso  106 

Conforta  e  ciba  di  speranza  buona, 
Ch'  io  non  ti  lascero  nel  mondo  basso.' 


Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  five  terzine: 


78        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


94 

P 

97 

0 

lOO 

NON  MI  LASCIAR 

103 

E 

106 

MA 

The  letters,  interrupted  by  the  command:  Non  mi  lasciar^ 
spell:  POEMA. 

The  command:  Non  mi  lasciar,  seems  to  hint  that  dante 
himself  is  not  to  be  left  out  of  the  acrostic  reading.  Following 
the  hint,  read  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  line  in 
which  the  command  appears  and  of  the  lines  on  each  side 
of  it: 


99 

DA 

100 

N 

lOI 

E 

If  a  T  were  supplied,  these  letters  would  spell:  dante. 
As  it  is,  they  suggest  the  name  as  either  unfinished  or  muti- 
lated, and  this  very  suggestion  is  made  by  Dante  himself  in 
the  complete  form  of  his  command,  line  100: 

Non  mi  lasciar,  diss'  io,  cosi  disfatto. 

Dante,  as  an  acrostic  reading,  is  disfatto  by  the  lack  of  a  t. 
And  because  of  this  lacking  t  Dante  may  be  understood,  lines 
no  and  in,  as  referring  to  the  doubtful  spelling  of  his  own 
name  when  he  says: 

ed  io  rimango  in  forse, 
Che'l  si  e  '1  no  nel  capo  mi  tenzona. 

Now  the  lacking  t  is  mentioned  by  Virgil,  line  108,  when  he 
replies,  as  he  may  be  understood  as  replying,  to  Dante:  No?7 
ti  lascerb.  The  //  of  these  words  is  to  be  understood,  for  the 
cryptographic  purpose  of  the  passage,  to  be  the  very  letter 
T  in  question;  and  Virgil  may  be  understood  to  be  refusing  to 
leave  the  t  in  Hell,  since  Hell  is  no  place  for  t,  the  symbol  of 
the  cross  and  of  Christ.  The  letter  t  as  a  cross,  and  so  as  the 
symbol  of  Christ,  is  often  used  in  the  cryptography  of  the 
Divina  Commedia.  Consistent  with  the  idea  that  the  symbol 
of  Christ,  and  therefore  Christ  himself,  is  not  to  be  left  in 


SIGNATURES  79 

Hell  is  the  fact  that  Dante  does  not  himself  refer  to  Christ  by 
name  in  Inferno.  Dante  must  be  content,  therefore,  to  spell 
his  name  on  the  marginal  letters  of  lines  99,  100,  and  loi, 
with  the  T  thus  mentioned  as  missing. 

The  acrostic  reads,  then:  poema:  dante. 

In  Virgil's  words  of  comfort  to  Dante  for  leaving  him 
cost  disfattOj  he  says,  lines  104  and  105 : 

Non  temer,  che  il  nostro  passo 
Non  ci  puo  torre  alcun:  da  tal  n'e  dato. 

Now  the  comfort  of  the  words:  da  tal  n'e  dato^  consists,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  cryptographic  intention,  in  the  fact 
that  they  contain  a  letter  sequence:  nedat,  which  spells 
Dante's  own  name. 

There  are  several  other  examples  of  acrostic  signatures 
with  the  T  hidden.  One  occurs  in  InJ.  xxiv.  70-84: 

lo  era  volto  in  giu;  ma  gli  occhi  vivi  70 

Non  potean  ire  al  fondo  per  1'  oscuro: 

Perch'  io:  'Maestro,  fa  che  tu  arrivi 
Dair  altro  cinghio,  e  dismontiam  lo  muro;     73 

Che  com'  i'  odo  quinci  e  non  intendo, 

Cos!  giu  veggio,  e  niente  affiguro.' 
*Altra  risposta,'  disse,  *non  ti  rendo,  'jG 

Se  non  lo  far:  che  la  domanda  onesta 

Si  dee  seguir  coll'  opera  tacendo.' 
Noi  discendemmo  il  ponte  dalla  testa,  79 

Dove  s'  aggiunge  coll'  ottava  ripa, 

E  poi  mi  fu  la  bolgia  manifesta: 
E  vidivi  entro  terribile  stipa  82 

Di  serpenti,  e  di  si  diversa  mena, 

Che  la  memoria  il  sangue  ancor  mi  scipa. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  five  terzine: 


70 

10 

73 

D 

76 

A 

79 

N 

82 

E 

If  a  T  were  supplied,  these  letters  would  read:  10  dante. 


8o        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

It  may  be  understood  to  be  on  account  of  the  missing  t, 
which  blocks  the  spelling,  that  Dante  says,  line  75:  niente 
affiguro.  The  allusion  to  the  missing  t  is  made  by  Virgil,  line 
76:  )wn  ti  rendo.  And  as  the  t  is  not  forthcoming,  Dante,  who 
is  having  great  difficulty  in  seeing,  cannot  see  the  bolgia^  the 
hole  or  hiatus  in  the  spelling,  until  he  descends  to  where  the 
bridge  joins  the  bank.  The  bridge  joining  the  bank  makes, 
naturally,  the  shape  of  a  t;  and  it  is  then,  with  the  t  thus 
supplied,  that,  as  Dante  says,  mi  Ju  la  bolgia  manijesta,  and 
the  spelling  is  completed:  10  dante. 

I  take  this  acrostic  to  be  on  the  five  terzine  spelling  10 
DANTE,  instead  of  on  the  four  spelling  simply  dante,  for  the 
reason  that  the  hint  of  its  presence  is  given  in  the  line  begin- 
ning with  /o,  line  70.  Dante  says  here  that  lo  era  volto  in  giu. 
These  words  are  the  hint  that  his  name  is  written  down  the 
margin. 

The  T  is  again  not  given  for  the  cryptic  spelling  of  Dante's 
name  in  Hell  for  the  reason,  as  already  explained,  that  t, 
as  a  cross  shape,  is  the  symbol  of  Christ. 

There  is  a  dante  signature  in  Paradiso  in  which  the  t  is 
missing,  and  the  reason  that  it  is  missing  in  the  spelling  in 
Paradiso  confirms  the  reason  for  its  being  missing  in  the 
spellings  in  Inferno.  The  passage  with  the  signature  to  which 
I  refer  is  found  in  Par.  xviii.  37-48: 

lo  vidi  per  la  croce  un  lume  tratto  37 

Dal  nomar  Josue,  com'  ei  si  feo, 
Ne  mi  fu  noto  il  dir  prima  che  il  fatto. 

Ed  al  nome  dell'  alto  Maccabeo  40 

Vidi  moversi  un  altro  roteando, 
E  letizia  era  ferza  del  paleo. 

Cos!  per  Carlo  magno  e  per  Orlando  43 

Due  ne  segui  lo  mio  attento  sguardo, 
Com'  occhio  segue  suo  falcon  volando. 

Poscia  trasse  Guglielmo,  e  Rinoardo,  46 

E  il  duca  Gottifredi  la  mia  vista 
Per  quella  croce,  e  Roberto  Guiscardo. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


SIGNATURES  8i 


37 

10 

40 

ED 

43 

CO 

46 

P 

Read:  copio.  ed 

Ed,  as  I  shall  show  in  Chapter  V,  is  in  itself  a  Dante 
signature.  Notice  that  ed,  as  a  signature,  is  immediately 
followed  in  the  text  by  al  nome.  The  whole  passage  is  a  play 
on  the  idea  of  name.  In  line  38  is  the  word  nomar^  and  in  the 
terzina  immediately  preceding,  34-36,  is  the  phrase:  io  or 
nomerb. 

The  acrostic:  copio.  ed,  may  be  understood  to  mean  that 
Dante  "copies"  the  cross,  which  is  mentioned  in  the  passage, 
in  the  sense  that  he  shows  the  cross,  or  the  divine  nature,  in 
his  human  nature.  He  illustrates  this  idea  by  the  crypto- 
graphic device  of  showing  the  cross  in  the  spelling  of  his 
name.  Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  terzina 

37-39- 


37 

10 

38 

DA 

39 

NE 

Io  equals  ten,  which  in  the  Roman  notation  is  x;  and  x, 
as  a  sign  of  the  cross,  is  equivalent  to  the  other  sign  of 
the  cross,  t.  Replace,  therefore,  10  by  t  and  read:  dante. 

Another  signature  with  a  concealed  t  appears  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  four  terzine,  Purg.  vi.  40-51 : 

E  la  dov'  io  fermai  cotesto  punto,  40 

Non  si  ammendava  per  pregar  difetto, 
Perche  il  prego  da  Dio  era  disgiunto. 

Veramente  a  cosi  alto  sospetto  43 

Non  ti  fermar,  se  quella  nol  ti  dice, 
Che  lume  fia  tra  il  vero  e  1'  intelletto. 

Non  so  se  intendi;  io  dico  di  Beatrice:  46 

Tu  la  vedrai  di  sopra,  in  suUa  vetta 
Di  questo  monte,  ridere  e  felice.' 


82        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Ed  io:  'Signore,  andlamo  a  maggior  fretta;       49 
Che  gia  non  m'  afFatico  come  dianzi; 
E  vedi  omai  che  il  poggio  V  ombra  getta.' 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

40        E    LA 
43       V 

46         NO 

49         ED 

Read:  velo  dane 

Notice  that  line  49  begins  with  the  words:  ed  10,  which, 
as  I  shall  show  in  Chapter  V,  are  a  cryptographic  signature. 
If  a  T  could  be  supplied,  the  acrostic  reading:  velo  dane 
would  become  velo  dante.  The  missing  t  is  twice  referred 
to  in  line  44: 

Non  tl  fermar,  se  quella  nol  ti  dice. 

The  reason  that  the  t  is  missing  from  the  signature  appears 
from  the  sense  of  the  text,  which  concerns  a  difetto,  line  4I. 
The  acrostic  illustrates  this  dijetto  by  being  itself  defective. 
But  Dante  does  not  leave  the  defective  signature  in  doubt, 
for  on  all  the  lines  of  the  terzina  preceding  his  symbol  ed  10, 
line  49,  along  with  this  line,  he  gives  the  following  letters: 

46  NON  so 

47  TU    LA    VE 

48  DI    Q 

49  E 

Read:  vel.  song  qui.  dante 

An  example  of  an  acrostic  in  which  the  t  for  dante 
appears  to  be  indicated  by  the  letters  10,  considered  as  a 
ten,  an  x,  a  cross,  and  so  as  a  t,  appears  in  Par.  viii.  35-39: 

D'  un  giro,  e  d'  un  girare,  e  d'  una  sete, 
Ai  quali  tu  del  mondo  gia  dicesti: 
Vol  che  intendendo  il  terzo  ciel  movete;       _       37 
E  sem  si  pien  d'  amor  che,  per  piacerti, 
Non  fia  men  dolce  un  poco  di  quiete.' 


SIGNATURES  83 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  five  lines: 


35 

D 

36 

AI 

37 

vol 

38 

E 

39  N 
Notice  that  all  the  letters  except  the  t  of  dante  appear  as 
initials,  and  that  the  only  line,  37,  on  which  a  letter  of  the 
name  does  not  appear  is  composed  of  a  quotation  from  one 
of  his  canzoni.  The  suggestion  is  forced  that  the  letters  se- 
lected above  contain  a  signature.  By  substituting  again  a 
T  for  the  01  (reversed,  10,  or  ten)  of  line  37,  read:  dante  vi. 

Following  are  five  terzine,  Piirg.  xxii.  94-108: 

Tu  dunque,  che  levato  hai  il  coperchio  94 

Che  m'  ascondeva  quanto  bene  io  dico, 
Mentre  che  del  salire  avem  soperchio, 

Dimmi  dov'  e  Terenzio  nostro  antico,  97 

Cecilio,  Plauto  e  Varro,  se  lo  sai: 
Dimmi  se  son  dannati,  ed  in  qual  vice' 

'Costoro,  e  Persio,  ed  io,  ed  altri  assai,'  100 

Rispose  il  Duca  mio,  'siam  con  quel  Greco 
Che  le  Muse  lattar  piu  ch'  altro  mai, 

Nel  primo  cinghio  del  carcere  cieco.  103 

Spesse  fiate  ragioniam  del  monte 
Che  sempre  ha  le  nutrici  nostre  seco. 

Euripide  v'  e  nosco,  ed  Antifonte,  106 

Simonide,  Agatone  ed  altri  piue 
Greci  che  gia  di  lauro  ornar  la  fronte. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  five  terzine  are: 

94       T 

97       D 

100      c 

103  N 

106  E 

Read:  dcnte 

I  regard  this  as  a  concealed  signature.  C,  initial  of  Hne  100, 
equals  100,  which, by  disregarding  the  ciphers,  equals  i,  which 


84        THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF   DANTE 

equals  a,  its  cabalistic  equivalent  as  the  first  letter  of  the 
alphabet.  By  substituting  a  for  c  we  read  dante.  Note, 
as  a  hint  of  the  concealed  signature,  the  possible  double 
sense  of  the  first  two  lines  of  the  passage. 

The  terzina  following  the  foregoing  passage,  Purg.  xxii. 
109-111, reads: 

Quivi  si  veggion  delle  genti  tue 
Antigone,  Deifile  ed  Argia, 
Ed  Ismene  si  trista  come  fue. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  three  lines: 


109 

QUIVI 

no 

ANT 

III 

ED 

Read:  quivi  dante 

A  signature  in  which  the  d  is  concealed  appears  in  Purg. 
XXV.  10-21 : 

E  quale  il  cicognin  che  leva  1'  ala  10 

Per  voglia  di  volare,  e  non  s'  attenta 

D'  abbandonar  lo  nido,  e  giu  la  cala; 
Tal  era  io  con  voglia  accesa  e  spenta  13 

Di  domandar,  venendo  infino  all'  atto 

Che  fa  colui  ch'  a  dicer  s'  argomenta. 
Non  lasci6,  per  1'  andar  che  fosse  ratto,  16 

Lo  dolce  Padre  mio,  ma  disse:  'Scocca 

L'  arco  del  dir  che  infino  al  ferro  hai  tratto.' 
AUor  sicuramente  aprii  la  bocca,  19 

E  cominciai:  'Come  si  puo  far  magro 

La  dove  1'  uopo  di  nutrir  non  tocca?* 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine  are: 

10       £ 
13       T 

16         N 
19         A 

Read:  ante 

This  approximation  to  dante  suggests  that  the  missing  d 


SIGNATURES  85 

is  indicated  in  a  double  meaning  of  uopo  di,  line  21,  and 
consumar  d,  line  23. 

Another  indication  that  a  d  is  to  be  supplied  appears  in 
an  acrostic  on  lines  13-15,  the  first  words  of  which  are, 
significantly:  Tal era  io.  Consider  on  these  lines  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

13  TA 

14  DI 

15  c 

Read:  taci  d 

But  what  was  Dante's  reason  for  omitting  the  d  from  his 
name?  The  reason  is  given  in  lines  20-27.  Dante  asks  Virgil 
how  the  spirits  of  the  gluttonous  can  appear  emaciated  when, 
as  spirits,  they  can  have  no  need  of  nourishment;  and  Virgil, 
who  explains  by  analogy,  asks  Dante  to  remember 

come  Meleagro 
Si  consumo  al  consumar  d'un  stizzo. 

Virgil  is  here  referring  to  the  story  of  the  prophecy  made  to 
the  mother  of  Meleager  at  the  time  of  his  birth.  According 
to  this  prophecy,  Meleager  was  to  live  as  long  as  a  log  then 
burning  on  the  hearth  remained  unconsumed.  In  order  to 
preserve  the  life  of  her  son,  the  mother  seized  the  log  from 
the  hearth,  extinguished  it,  and  preserved  it.  But  when 
Meleager  grew  to  manhood,  he  excited  her  anger;  in  revenge 
she  threw  the  log,  which  represented  his  life,  in  the  fire;  and 
as  the  log  was  consumed  Meleager  was  consumed. 

The  signature  ante,  of  which  the  d  has  been  consumed^  is 
obviously  given  by  Dante  as  a  cryptographic  analogy  to  the 
story  of  Meleager.  Dante  lives  as  long  as  his  name  lives. 
And  he  is  destroyed  with  the  destruction  of  his  name. 

The  myth  of  Meleager  has  a  deeper  meaning  which  is 
consonant  with  the  deeper  meaning  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 
The  log  is  phallic;  the  fire  is  the  symbol  of  sexual  union;  and 
the  act  of  the  mother  in  withdrawing  the  log  from  the  fire  at 
the  moment  of  birth  symbolizes  the  severing  at  birth  of  the 
union  of  the  child  with  its  mother.  The  act  of  the  mother  in 
putting  the  log  back  into  the  fire  symbolizes  the  reunion  of 


86        THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

the  mother  and  child  in  an  incestuous  act  which  is  the  cause 
at  once  of  the  death  and  the  rebirth  of  the  child. 

The  following  passage,  InJ.  xxiii.  67-78,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

O  in  eterno  faticoso  manto!  67 

Noi  ci  volgemmo  ancor  pure  a  man  manca 

Con  loro  insieme,  intenti  al  tristo  pianto: 
Ma  per  lo  peso  quella  gente  stanca  70 

Venia  si  pian,  che  noi  eravam  nuovi 

Di  compagnia  ad  ogni  mover  d'  anca. 
Perch'  io  al  Duca  mio:  'Fa  che  tu  trovi  73 

Alcun  ch'  al  fatto  o  al  nome  si  conosca, 

E  gli  occhi  si  andando  intorno  movi.' 
Ed  un  che  intese  la  parola  Tosca  76 

Diretro  a  noi  grido:  'Tenete  i  piedi, 

Voi  che  correte  si  per  1'  aura  fosca: 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  four  terzine: 


67 

0 

70 

MA 

73 

P 

76 

E 

Read:  poema 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  lines  and 
the  intervening  lines: 


67 

0 

68 

NOI 

69 

C 

70 

MA 

71 

VE 

72 

D 

73 

P 

74 

A 

75 

E 

76 

E 

Read:  poema.  ecco  vi  dane 


SIGNATURES  87 

If  a  T  were  supplied,  Dante's  name  would  be  complete. 
It  is  to  be  found  in  the  falicoso  manto,  of  line  67,  for  the  weary- 
mantle  to  be  borne  eternally  is,  for  Dante,  his  poem,  and  it  is 
also  the  cross,  and  the  cross  is  a  t. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines  of  the 
last  terzina: 

76  E 

77  Di 

78  V 

Read:  vedi 


INTERIOR  SEQUENCES 

In  addition  to  the  various  devices  which  we  have  examined 
in  the  preceding  signatures  is  another  well  known  device  of 
cryptography  that  is  frequently  used  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 
The  device  to  which  I  refer  consists  in  arranging  the  letters  of 
the  cryptogram,  not  on  the  margin  as  in  acrostics,  but  in  the 
body  of  the  text,  in  such  a  way  that  they  follow  a  straight  line 
that  is  either  perpendicular  or  oblique  to  the  regular  lines 
of  the  text.  This  device  is  the  so  called  interior  sequence. 

An  example  of  such  an  interior  sequence  appears  in  a 
passage  which  seems  to  give  indications  of  a  description 
of  the  very  device  in  question.  I  refer  to  the  first  four 
terzine  of  Par.  x: 

Guardando  nel  suo  figlio  con  1'  amore 

Che  r  uno  e  1'  altro  eternalmente  spira, 

Lo  primo  ed  ineffabile  valore, 
Quanto  per  mente  o  per  loco  si  gira  4 

Con  tanto  ordine  fe',  ch'  esser  non  puote 

Senza  gustar  di  lui  chi  cio  rimira. 
Leva  dunque,  lettor,  all'  alte  rote  7 

Meco  la  vista  dritto  a  quella  parte 

Dove  r  un  moto  e  1'  altro  si  percote; 
E  li  comincia  a  vagheggiar  nell'  arte  10 

Di  quel  maestro,  che  dentro  a  se  1'  ama 

Tanto  che  mal  da  lei  1'  occhio  non  parte. 


88        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  complete  acrostic  reading  on  this  passage  will  be 
shown  in  Chapter  IX,  pp.  407-8.  For  the  present  note  the 
following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  terzina: 

10  E 

11  D 

12  TAN 

Read:  dante 

Now  look  at  the  letters  which  I  have  capitalized  in  the 
first  five  lines  of  this  passage,  as  follows: 

1  guardando  nel  suo   figlio  con  I'amorE 

2  che  I'uno  e  I'altro  eternalmeNTe  spira 

3  lo  primo  ed  ineffabile  vAlore 

4  quanto  per  menTE  0  Per  loco  si  gira 

5  con  tanto  orDine   fe  ch'esser  non  puote 

The  letters  which  I  have  capitalized  make  the  following 

figure: 

E 

NT 
A 
TE    O    P 
D 

The  letters  capitalized  in  line  4:  te  o  p,  spell  backwards: 

POET. 

A  straight  line  drawn  from  the  capitalized  d  of  ordine, 
line  5,  to  the  capitalized  e  of  amore,  line  i,  passes  through  the 
capitalized  a  of  va/ore,  line  3,  and  the  capitalized  nt  of 
eternalmente^  line  2.  The  capitalized  letters  on  this  line  spell, 
therefore,  dante;  and  the  same  line  passes  through  the  letter 
group:  te  op,  on  line  4.  Thus  the  complete  reading  of  the 
interior  sequence  may  be  considered  to  be:  dante,  poet. 

Notice  that  the  spacing  between  the  letters  of  the  signature 
is  almost  mathematically  regular.  In  the  sixth  space  beyond 
the  D,  on  the  line  above  the  d,  is  the  space  between  the  o 
and  the  p  of  the  sequence:  te  o  p;  in  the  sixth  space  beyond 
this  space,  on  the  line  above,  is  the  a;  in  the  sixth  space 


SIGNATURES  89 

beyond  the  a,  on  the  line  above,  is  the  t  of  nt  ;  and  in  the  sixth 
space  beyond  the  n  of  nt,  on  the  line  above,  is  the  e. 

Let  me  first  give  the  method  by  which  I  arrive  at  this 
sequence  and  then  the  confirmatory  indications  in  the  text 
for  so  doing. 

First,  then,  for  the  method.  The  passage  is  printed  with  a 
perfectly  even  margin,  so  that  the  first  letter  of  every  line  is 
directly  above  or  below  the  first  letter  of  the  line  that  follows 
or  precedes  it.  It  is  a  necessary  consequence,  therefore,  that 
if  a  line  be  considered  as  a  series  of  equal  positions  every  one 
of  which  is  occupied  either  by  a  letter  or  a  space  between 
words,  all  the  relative  positions  of  the  lines  will  be  directly 
above  or  below  each  other,  exactly  as  in  the  case  of  the 
positions  of  the  first  letters. 

This  is  not  the  form  in  which  the  text  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  usually  presented;  in  all  the  editions  with  which 
I  am  acquainted,  the  second  and  third  lines  of  each  terzina 
are  indented,  with  the  effect  of  emphasizing  the  terzine  as 
separate  units  by  the  salience  of  their  first  lines.  Whatever 
the  authority  for  thus  indenting  the  second  and  third  lines 
of  each  terzina  and  whatever  advantage  there  may  be  in 
typographically  marking  the  terzina  as  a  unit,  the  uneven 
margin  is  a  form  that  cannot  be  presupposed  to  have  been 
used  by  Dante,  especially  if  there  is  any  reason  to  believe 
that  he  used  his  text  as  a  bed  for  interior  sequences.  Indeed, 
in  such  a  case,  it  is  practically  certain  that  he  must  have 
made,  or  at  least  have  calculated,  his  margin  even. 

The  discovery  of  the  interior  sequences  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  dependent  on  the  presumption  that  every  letter 
in  every  line  has  a  calculable  position  in  relation  to  every 
other  letter.  An  author  may  insert,  indeed,  an  interior 
sequence  into  a  text  in  which  the  positions  of  the  letters  have 
not  been  calculated,  but  he  can  never  expect  the  sequence  to 
be  discovered  by  the  reader,  if  the  relative  positions  of  the 
letters  in  his  original  copy  are  altered.  Any  alteration,  in  fact, 
would  completely  distort  the  sequence  beyond  the  possibility 
of  recognition.  In  the  case  of  the  use  of  a  manuscript  copy, 
such  as  Dante  was  obliged  to  use  in  presenting  his  poem  to 


90        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

the  public,  the  chances  for  the  alteration  of  the  relative 
positions  were  infinite;  the  chances  for  preserving  them  were 
nil.  His  only  means  for  preserving  them,  therefore,  would 
have  been  to  make  it  possible  to  calculate  the  relative  posi- 
tions of  the  letters  of  his  original  copy  from  the  very  form  of 
the  poem  itself.  And  his  only  means  of  making  this  calculation 
possible  would  have  been  to  consider  every  line  as  an  ordinal 
series  of  equal  positions  directly  above  or  below  the  relative 
positions  in  all  the  other  lines.  Such  an  ordinal  series  of  equal 
positions,  occupied  respectively  by  the  letters  of  the  text  or 
the  spaces  between  the  words  of  the  text,  never  appears  on 
the  ordinary  printed  page,  where  the  various  letters,  such  as 
I  and  M  for  instance,  occupy  spaces  of  different  size;  it  can 
occur,  however,  in  script  produced  by  a  typewriter,  where 
every  letter  occupies  an  equal  space.  I  have  accordingly,  in 
order  to  show  the  interior  sequences  in  the  Divina  Commedia, 
had  the  passages  in  which  they  occur  printed  in  typewriter 
style. 

My  argument  for  supposing  that  Dante  intended  his  text 
to  be  so  arranged  is  based  primarily,  of  course,  on  the  hypo- 
thesis that  he  used  his  text  as  a  bed  for  interior  sequences. 
This  original  hypothesis  has  in  its  favor,  first,  the  fact  that 
if  he  used  cryptographic  devices  at  all  he  may  well  be 
supposed  to  have  used  the  well  known  and  common  device 
of  the  interior  sequence;  and  further  in  favor  of  this  hypo- 
thesis are  the  implications  of  certain  curious  expressions  in 
the  very  passage,  and  in  the  lines  immediately  following  it, 
in  which  I  have  just  shown  the  interior  sequence  spelling 
DANTE,  POET.  Let  me  refer  first  to  the  possible  duplicity  in  the 
meaning  of  the  command  to  "lift  then  thy  sight.  Reader, 
with  me  to  the  lofty  wheels,  straight  to  that  region  where  the 
one  motion  strikes  on  the  other."  May  there  not  be  a  hint 
here  to  look  up  at  the  "wheels"  of  the  lines  above,  where 
"the  one  motion"  of  the  first  line  "strikes  on  the  other" 
motion  of  the  second  line?  It  is  to  this  point,  in  the  word 
Amore^  the  last  word  of  the  first  line,  that  the  reader  may 
accordingly  be  considered  to  be  directed  to  lift  up  his  eyes  for 
the  beginning  of  the  interior  sequence  just  shown.  And  may 


SIGNATURES  91 

not  the  reference  to  the  art  of  the  master  "who  within  him- 
self so  loves  it"  suggest  the  art  of  hiding  a  spelling  inside  the 
text?  And  may  not  the  "master"  be  Dante,  since  dante 
appears  in  an  acrostic  on  the  terzina  in  which  the  "master" 
is  mentioned  ?  And  considering  the  oblique  line  made  by  the 
interior  sequence  here  discovered,  may  we  not  see  an  allusion 
to  it  in  the  words:  "See  how  the  oblique  circle  which  bears 
the  planets  branches  off?"  And  may  there  not  be  a  similar 
hidden  meaning  in  the  allusion  to  the  departure  of  this  line 
as  "more  or  less  distant  from  the  straight  line?"  The  whole 
passage,  read  with  suspicion  alert  to  the  duplicities  of  expres- 
sion so  common  in  the  Divina  Commedia,  points  to  a  crypto- 
graphic device  like  the  interior  sequence  here  discovered.  In 
view  of  these  possible  hints  of  the  existence  of  interior 
sequences  I  have  arranged  the  text  in  the  manner  shown 
above;  for  this  manner  of  arranging  the  text,  assuming  that 
the  text  contains  interior  sequences,  may  fairly  be  assumed 
to  have  been  considered  by  Dante  himself  as  the  only  means 
by  which  the  interior  sequences  could  be  reconstructed  from 
the  text  itself  in  the  absence  of  the  original  copy. 

It  may  very  well  be,  however,  that  in  spite  of  the  pre- 
sumptive evidence  in  its  favor,  the  interior  sequence  which  I 
have  shown  may  fail  in  itself  to  convince  the  reader  that  it  is 
anything  else  than  an  accident.  Nor  am  I  able  to  affirm,  as  a 
fact,  that  it  is  not  an  accident.  The  strongest  evidence  in  its 
favor  will  be  the  cumulative  evidence  of  other  interior 
sequences  in  positions  where  the  sense  of  the  text  corresponds 
to  the  sense  of  the  interior  sequence. 

There  is  another  possible  objection  to  the  "intention"  of 
this  interior  sequence.  It  is  the  fact  that  the  spacing  of  the 
letters  of  the  sequence  is  not  quite  regular.  I  will  show  in- 
stances of  interior  sequences  where  the  regularity  of  the 
spacing  is  absolute,  and  this  regularity  is  additional  proof,  of 
course,  of  the  intention  of  the  sequence.  But  a  sequence 
remains  a  sequence  in  spite  of  spacing  that  is  not  quite 
mathematically  strict,  especially  when  it  can  be  confirmed  by 
the  sense  of  the  text.  A  sequence  that  is  not  mathematically 
regular  in  its  spacing  may  still,  as  in  the  present  instance. 


92        THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

strike  the  eye  as  regular,  and  it  is  the  eye  that  judges.  Indeed, 
the  mathematical  regularity  cannot  be  seen  without  careful 
counting,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  whatever  the 
ingenuity  of  the  author,  the  difficulties  of  constructing  an 
absolutely  strict  sequence  may  be  at  times  so  great  as  to 
warrant  his  use  of  a  sequence  that  satisfies  the  eye.* 

There  is  a  group  of  interior  sequences  spelling  dante  in 
Par.  XV.  94-1 1 1,  a  passage  to  which  I  have  referred  in 
Chapter  I  as  showing  a  curious  symmetrical  arrangement  of 
four  terzine  each  beginning  with  the  same  word:  Non.  The 
passage  reads  as  follows: 

Mio  figlio  fu,  e  tuo  bisavo  fue:  94 

Ben  si  convien  che  la  lunga  fatica 

Tu  gli  raccorci  con  1'  opere  tue. 
Fiorenza  dentro  dalla  cerchia  antlca  97 

Ond'  ella  toglie  ancora  e  terza  e  nona, 

Si  stava  in  pace,  sobria  e  pudica. 
Non  avea  catenella,  non  corona,  100 

Non  donne  contigiate,  non  cintura 

Che  fosse  a  veder  piu  che  la  persona. 
Non  faceva  nascendo  ancor  paura  103 

La  figlia  al  padre,  che  il  tempo  e  la  dote 

Non  fuggian  quinci  e  quindi  la  misura. 
Non  avea  case  di  famiglia  vote;  106 

Non  v'  era  giunto  ancor  Sardanapalo 

A  mostrar  cio  che  in  camera  si  puote. 
Non  era  vinto  ancora  Montemalo  109 

Dal  vostro  Uccellatoio,  che,  com'  e  vinto 

Nel  montar  su,  cosi  sara  nel  calo. 

Before  examining  the  interior  sequences  let  us  read  the 
acrostic  in  this  passage.  Consider  the  following  marginal 
letters  on  the  first  lines  of  the  six  terzine: 


94 

MI 

103 

NO 

97 

FIORENZA    DE 

106 

NO 

100 

NO 

109 

NO 

Read:  nomi,  fiorenza,  d...e.  no,  no,  no 

*In  the  device  in  George  Herbert's  poem,  shown  on  page  8,  the  words  are 
not  regularly  spaced,  either  numbered  as  words  in  the  line,  or  counted  in 
letters  and  letter  spaces.  Poe's  well-known  "Valentine"  to  Frances  Sargent 
Osgood  is  mathematically  regular. 


SIGNATURES  93 

Cacciaguida,  the  ancestor  of  Dante,  is  speaking  of  the  past 
of  Florence,  Dante's  birthplace,  the  mother  that  denied  him 
by  sending  him  into  exile.  The  acrostic:  nomi,  fiorenza, 
D.  . .  E,  is  met,  therefore,  characteristically,  by  the  reiteration 
of  her  denial:  no,  no,  no.  Dante  is  thrice  denied,  as  Christ 
was  thrice  denied.  This  is  another  of  the  numerous  instances 
of  Dante's  identification  of  himself  with  Christ. 

Florence  refuses  to  name  Dante,  and  the  refusal  seems  to 
be  expressed  by  the  following  cryptographic  device.  Grouped 
about  the  last  no,  Hne  109,  are  the  following  marginal  letters: 


108 

A 

109 

NON 

E 

no 

DAL 

III 

NEL 

MONTA 

Read:  ella  non  noma  dante 

Now  in  connection  with  these  two  acrostic  readings:  nomi, 
fiorenza,  d.  .  .e.  no,  no,  no,  and  ella  non  noma  dante, 
see  how  Dante  is  named  in  the  passage  in  interior  sequences, 
notwithstanding  the  refusal  of  Florence  to  name  him: 

99  si  stava  in  pAce  sobria  E  pudica 

100  non  avea  cateNella  noN  corona 

101  non  donne  conTigiATe  non  cintura 

102  che   fosse  a  vEDer  piu  che  la  persona 

Read  the  capitals  on  the  vertical  line  from  a  of  pace^  99; 
n  o{  catenella^  100;  first  t  oi  contigiate,  loi;  ed  of  veder^  102: 
dante. 

Read  from  e,  after  sobria^  99;  second  n  on  non^  100;  at  of 
contigiate^  loi;  d  oi  veder^  102:  dante. 

These  two  interior  sequences,  shown  respectively  in  the 
capital  letters  on  a  vertical  and  an  oblique  line,  are  absolutely 
regular.  In  the  vertical  sequence  the  letters  a,  n,  t,  and  e  are 
each  in  the  fourteenth  space  of  their  respective  lines  and  the 
D  is  immediately  adjacent  to  the  e.  In  the  oblique  sequence 
there  are  exactly  two  spaces  between  the  d  and  the  at, 
between  the  at  and  the  n,  and  between  the  n  and  the  e. 
Moreover,  the  fact  that  both  signatures  meet  on  the  same  d 


94        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

adds  still  more  to  the  probability  that  they  are  intentional, 
as  does  likewise  their  meeting  on  the  d  of  ed,  in  itself  a 
signature.  There  is  a  hint  in  the  text  to  look  for  the  signature 
in  the  words:  veder  piu  che  la  persona^  and  this  hint  itself 
coincides  with  the  converging  point  of  the  two  signatures. 
In  lines   105-108,  there   is  an  interior  sequence  reading 

DANTE, thus: 

105  non   fuggiaN  quinci   e  quindi   la  misura 

106  non  avea  case  di    fAmilia  vote 

107  non  v'era  giunto  ancor  sarDanapalo 

108  a  mostrar  cio  che  in  camera  si  puoTE 

Read  from  n  o{ Juggian^  105;  first  a  q>{ Jamiglia^  106;  d  of 
sardanapalo^  107;  te  oi puote^  108:  dante. 

This  sequence  is  spaced  with  mathematical  precision. 
There  are  seven  spaces  between  the  n  oifuggian  and  the  a  of 
famiglia^  seven  spaces  between  this  a  and  the  d  of  sardana- 
palo^  and  seven  spaces  between  this  d  and  the  te  of  puote. 
There  is  a  hint  in  the  text  in  the  words: 

A  mostrar  cio  che  in  camera  si  puote. 

The  nest  of  three  interior  sequences  spelling  Dante  in  this 
passage,  confirmed  by  hints  in  the  text  and  the  acrostic 
readings:  nomi,  fiorenza,  d.  .  .  e.  no,  no,  no,  and  ella  non 
NOMA  DANTE,  Can  scatccly  be  rejected  as  accidental. 

Following  is  another  interior  sequence  which  resembles 
the  first  one  I  showed  in  that  it  appears  on  the  first  five  lines 
of  a  canto,  namely,  InJ.  xiii.  1-5: 

1  non  era  ancor  di   la  nesso  arrivAto 

2  quando  noi   ci  mettemmo  pEr  un  bosco 

3  che  da  nessun  senTiero  era  segnato 

4  non   fronDe  verdi  ma  di   color   fosco 

5  Non   rami   schietti  ma  nodosi   e   involti 

Read  from  the  second  a  of  arrivato^  i ;  e  of  per^  2;  t  of 
sentiero^  3;  d  oi Jronde^  4;  initial  n  of  non^  5:  dante. 

In  the  passage  to  which  I  have  already  referred  as  con- 
taining the  acrostic  vom  there  are  two  interior  sequences  in 
the  first  five  lines,  Purg.  xii.  25-29: 


SIGNATURES  95 

25  veDE  colui  che  fu  Nobil  create 

26  piu  ch'Altra  creaturA  giu  DAI  cielo 

27  folgoreggiaNdo  scender  DA  un  lato 

28  vedea  briareo  fiTto  DAI  TElo 

29  celestial  giacer  DAll'altra  parte 

Read :  de  of  vede^  25 ;  first  a  of  altra^  26;  n  oijolgoreggtando^ 

1^\  first  T  oifittO^  28:     DANTE. 

Read  n  of  nobil ^  25;  second  a  of  creatura^  26;  d  of  da^  i']; 

TE  of  telo,  28:    DANTE. 

Notice  the  curious  sequence,  da,  26,  da,  27,  da,  28,  da,  29. 
DA  are  Dante's  initials  and  are  apparently  used  by  Dante  as  a 
signature. 

The  foregoing  examples  are  sufficient  to  establish  Dante's 
use  of  the  interior  sequence  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  The 
other  interior  sequences  which  I  have  discovered  I  will  show 
later,  as  especially  pertinent  to  certain  aspects  of  Dante's 
symbolism. 

NON-ITALIAN  PHRASES 

In  the  Divina  Commedia  are  many  Latin  phrases,  one  pass- 
age in  Provengal,  and  two  passages  of  "gibberish."  It  is  my 
opinion  that  Dante  was  partly  determined  in  his  use  of 
these  passages  by  the  cryptographic  possibilities  which  they 
presented.  I  will  show,  at  any  rate,  that  many  of  these 
non-Italian  phrases  can  be  regarded  as  yielding  acrostic  or 
telestic  or  anagrammatic  readings  referring  to  Dante  or  to 
the  symbolism  of  the  poem.  The  device  by  which  the 
acrostics  or  telestics  are  read  on  phrases  is  the  same  device 
by  which  the  famous  acrostic  'ixeXS  is  derived  from  the 
phrase:  'lijo-oDs  XpLards  Qeov  Tios  XuTTjp. 

It  is  impossible,  indeed,  to  prove  that  the  cryptograms 
which  I  shall  show  on  the  non-Italian  passages  were  intended 
by  Dante.  But  some  evidence  of  intention  appears  from 
the  very  possibility  of  finding  in  a  large  number  of  them 
acrostics,  telestics,  and  anagrams  appropriate  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  poem.     I  believe  that  in  many  of  these  non-Italian 


96       THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

phrases  Dante  was  conscious  of  the  possibility  of  converting 
them,  by  cryptographic  devices,  into  references  to  himself. 
The  "delusion  of  reference"  which  this  cryptographic  use  of 
innocent  phrases  indicates  is  consistent  both  with  the  form 
of  the  poem  as  a  dream  and  with  Dante's  highly  rationalized 
egocentricity.  I  will  give  here  several  examples  which 
contain  Dante's  signature.  Most  of  the  other  examples  will 
be  found  in  Chapter  IX.  A  few  will  be  found  in  other  chap- 
ters, to  which  their  cryptographic  meaning  is  especially  per- 
tinent. 

In  Purg.  ii.  46,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  In  exitu  Israel  de 
Mgypto.  These  words  contain  a  signature.  The  x  of 
exitu  is  to  be  taken  as  the  equivalent  of  a  t,  since  x  and  t,  as 
has  already  been  noted,  are  both  signs  of  the  cross.  Con- 
sider the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


IN 

IN 

EXITU 

EX=ET 

ISRAEL 

ISRA 

DE 

D 

AEGYPTO 

AEG 

Read:  gira. 

SEI    DANTE 

The  GIRA  of  this  reading  is  a  direction  to  revolve  or  re- 
arrange the  letters.  The  use  of  gira  recalls  the  use  of  the  word 
"revolve"  in  Twelfth  Night,  ii,  5. 

That  the  signature  in  In  exitu  Israel  de  JEgypto  was  in- 
tended by  Dante  is  indicated  by  the  acrostic  on  the  six  lines 
ending  with  the  line  composed  of  the  Latin  words  in  ques- 
tion. 


41 

c 

42 

TA 

43 

DA 

44 

T 

45 

E 

46 

IN 

Read:  taci  dante  (or  cita  dante) 

Notice,  moreover,  that  the  terzina  preceding  the  line  in 
Latin  contains  a  signature.     The  terzina  reads: 


SIGNATURES  97 

Da  poppa  stava  il  celestial  nocchiero, 
Tal  che  parea  beato  per  iscripto; 
E  piu  di  cento  spirti  entro  sediero. 

Consider  the  initial  and  contiguous  letters  on  the  first 
and  last  words  of  each  line: 

43  DA N 

44  T I 

45  E SE 

Read:  sei  dante 

This  method  of  signing  appears  to  be  hinted  at  in  the  allu- 
sion, line  43,  to  the  nocchiero  who  stood  da  poppa.  This 
allusion  to  the  poppa  may  be  understood  as  a  hint  of  what  is 
standing  at  the  poppa  of  the  line.  In  the  signature  in  di 
NECESSiTA,  Purg.  XXX.  (i'^  (sec  p.  55),  there  is  a  similar  use 
di  poppa  with  prora  as  a  hint  to  look  at  the  end  as  well  as 
at  the  beginning  of  the  words. 

The  signature  on  this  terzina:  sei  dante,  is  identical, 
with  the  exception  of  the  word  gira,  with  the  signature  found 
on  the  Latin  phrase  which  immediately  follows:  gira. 
sei  dante. 

In  Purg.  viii.  13,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Te  lucis  ante.  These 
words  are  part  of  the  first  line  of  a  hymn  sung  at  Compline, 
the  last  service  of  the  day.  Tutto  V  inno  intero,  as  is  in- 
dicated in  line  17,  was  sung  in  the  hearing  of  Dante.  Why, 
then,  does  he  refer  to  the  hymn  by  just  the  three  words: 
Te  lucis  ante?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  crypto- 
graphic signature  which  these  three  words  make  possible. 
Consider  in  these  words  the  following  initial  and  contiguous 
letters: 

TE       TE 
LUCIS    LUCI 
ANTE    ANTE 

Read:  tu  celi  ante 

There  is,  of  course,  a  suggestion  of  dante  in  the  sound  of 
ante,  and  it  is  on  this  sound  suggestion  that  Dante  is  here 
playing.     If  a  d  could  be  supplied,  his  name  would  be  spelled 


98        THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

in  full,  and  the  cryptogram  would  read:  tu  celi  dante. 
Now  as  a  matter  oi  double  entente,  Dante  is  to  be  understood 
as  saying  himself  that  he  heard  his  own  name  in  the  words: 
Te  lucis  ante;  this  double  meaning  appears  in  the  way  he 
says  that  the  Latin  phrase  was  uttered: 

con  si  dolci  note, 
Che  fece  me  a  me  uscir. 

These  words,  taken  as  they  are  from  their  context,  are  capa- 
ble of  meaning  that  the  Latin  phrase  was  uttered  "with  such 
sweet  notes  that  it  made  me  (my  name)  come  out  to  me." 
In  addition  to  this  suggestion  that  a  d  is  to  be  supplied,  there 
is  another  suggestion  to  supply  the  d  in  the  three  d's  in  the 
line  preceding  the  Te  lucis  ante: 

Come  dicesse  a  Dio:  'D'altro  non  calme.' 

Moreover,  the  D  altro  is  capable  of  suggesting  an  other  D. 
Another  suggestion  that  a  d  is  to  come  out  of  the  context 
for  the  signature  in  Te  lucis  ante  may  be  found  in  the  words 
uscir  di,  line  15.  Another  suggestion  that  a  d  somewhere  in 
the  text  is  to  be  sounded  with  Te  lucis  ante  may  be  taken 
from  the  words,  removed  from  their  context:  squilla  di 
lontano.  These  words  may  be  understood  as  meaning  that  "a 
distant  d  sounds." 

For  the  acrostic  which  appears  on  the  passage  in  which 
this  Latin  phrase  is  quoted  see  page  418.  The  acrostic 
reads:  dante  e  qui  l'eguale.  This  acrostic  may  refer,  in 
part,  to  the  Latin  words,  to  which  Dante,  in  a  cryptographic 
sense,  is  the  equal.  The  Latin  phrase  is  followed,  lines  19-21, 
with  a  reference  to  the  velo;  the  velo  may  be  the  cryptogram 
which  we  have  just  deciphered.  The  reference  to  the  velo 
is  as  follows: 

Aguzza  qui,  Lettor,  ben  gli  occhi  al  vero, 
Ch^  il  velo  h  ora  ben  tanto  sottile, 
Certo,  che  il  trapassar  dentro  h,  leggiero. 

In  Purg.  xxvii.  8,  is  the  Latin  phrase  Beati  mundo  corde. 
Consider  in  these  words  the  following  final  and  contiguous 
letters: 


SIGNATURES  99 


BE  ATI  ATI 

MUNDO  NDO 

CORDE  E 

Read:  10  dante 

The  first  line  of  Inf.  xxxiv.  is  in  Latin: 

Vexilla  regis  prodeunt  inferni. 

These  words  are  a  parody  of  a  hymn  in  honor  of  Christ. 
The  sense  is  reversed  to  apply  to  Lucifer.  This  reversing  of 
the  sense  is  paralleled  by  the  cryptographic  device  of  taking 
the  letters  from  the  end  of  the  words  instead  of  from  the 
beginning.  Consider  the  following  telestic  letters  of  the 
Latin  words — the  u  oi prodeunt  being  the  equivalent  of  a  v: 

VEXILLA  A 

REGIS  CIS 

PRODEUNT  ODEUNT 

INFERNI  NI 

Read:  vi  signo:    dante 


GROUPS  OF  PROPER  NAMES 

Analogous  to  the  cryptograms  constructed  on  the  words 
of  a  phrase  or  a  sentence  is  a  form  of  cryptogram  constructed 
on  the  proper  names  of  a  passage.  Of  this  form  I  have  found 
several  examples  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  and  it  is  possible 
that  there  are  more  than  I  have  found.  Dante's  choice  of 
the  proper  names  which  he  groups  together  seems  to  have 
been  determined  by  his  cryptographic  purpose  as  well  as 
by  historical  and  poetical  association.  In  some  cases  the 
association  is  not  self-evident  and  has  puzzled  the  commen- 
tators. It  may  be  that  the  cryptograms  which  I  have  found 
explain  the  reason  for  his  selection,  namely,  the  need  of  cer- 
tain letters  for  the  cryptographic  reading.  I  will  give  here 
a  single  specimen  of  this  type  of  cryptogram;  I  will  reserve 
others  for  the  chapters  to  which  the  cryptographic  meaning 
is  especially  pertinent  and  the  rest  for  Chapter  IX. 


loo      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

There  are  several  groups  of  persons  with  whom  Dante 
identifies  himself  by  the  device  of  signing  his  name  on  the 
first  letters  of  their  names.  The  first  group  is  the  group  of 
souls  that  accompanied  Christ  in  his  ascent  from  Hell  to 
Heaven.  This  group  is  mentioned  by  Virgil  in  /«/.  iv.  46-69, 
in  response  to  a  question  from  Dante: 

'Dimmi,  Maestro  mio,  dimmi,  Signore,'  46 

Comincia'  io,  per  voler  esser  certo 

Di  quella  fede  che  vince  ogni  errore: 
'Uscicci  mai  alcuno,  o  per  suo  merto,  49 

O  per  altrui,  che  poi  fosse  beato?' 

E  quel,  che  intese  il  mio  parlar  coperto, 
Rispose:   To  era  nuovo  in  questo  state,  52 

Quando  ci  vidi  venire  un  possente 

Con  segno  di  vittoria  coronato. 
Trasseci  1'  ombra  del  prime  parente,  55 

D'  Abel  suo  figlio,  e  quella  di  Nod, 

Di  Moisd  legista  e  ubbidiente; 
Abraam  patriarca,  e  David  re,  58 

Israel  con  lo  padre,  e  co'  suoi  nati, 

E  con  Rachele,  per  cui  tanto  fe', 
Ed  altri  molti;  e  fecegli  beati:  61 

E  vo'  che  sappi  che,  dinanzi  ad  essi, 

Spiriti  umani  non  eran  salvati.' 
Non  lasciavam  1'  andar  perch'  ei  dicessi,  64 

Ma  passavam  la  selva  tuttavia, 

La  selva  dico  di  spiriti  spessi. 
Non  era  lunga  ancor  la  nostra  via  67 

Di  qua  dal  sonno,  quand'  io  vidi  un  foco 

Ch'  emisperio  di  tenebre  vincia. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  the  terzine: 


46 

D 

49 

USCI 

52 

RI 

55 

T 

58 

A 

61 

E 

64 

N 

67 

NON 

Read:  non  riusci  dante? 


The  acrostic  expresses  the  real  meaning  of  Dante's  parlar 
copertOy  the  question:  Uscicci  mai  alcuno? 


SIGNATURES  loi 

Notice  also  the  dante  on  the  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine, 

SS-^^'  T,  A,   ED,  N. 

Now  consider  the  initials  of  the  names  actually  mentioned, 
lines  56-60,  of  the  spirits  delivered  from  Hell  by  Christ  im- 
mediately after  the  crucifixion.  In  the  reference  to  Christ 
as  un  possentey  the  cross  is  indicated  as  the  segno  di  vittoria 
with  which  he  was  crowned.  The  names,  appearing  in  the 
text,  of  the  delivered  spirits  are: 


ABEL 

A 

NOE 

N 

MOISE 

M 

ABRAAM 

A 

DAVID 

D 

ISRAEL 

I 

RACHELE 

R 

The  initials  of  these  names  may  be  taken  to  read:  mira 
DAN.  By  adding  to  these  letters  the  t  of  the  cross,  the  sign 
of  Christ,  the  reading  is:  mira  dant. 

Dante  thus  identifies  himself  with  the  souls  of  the  saved, 
and  so  answers  in  the  affirmative  the  question  expressed  in 
the  acrostic:  non  riusci  dante? 


LOST  AND  FOUND 

The  cryptographic  signatures  of  Dante  shown  in  the  pre- 
ceding pages  are  widely  scattered  through  the  Divina 
Commedia.  I  will  conclude  this  chapter  by  showing  signatures 
at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  the  poem.  They  are 
important  because  of  their  position,  their  structure,  and 
their  relation  to  each  other;  and  also  because  they  illustrate 
the  philosophic  raison  d'etre  of  the  cryptographic  signatures 
in  general. 

The  importance  of  the  signatures  at  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  the  Divina  Commedia  consists  in  part  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  in  these  positions  that  Dante,  in  accordance  with  the 


I02      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

general  cryptographic  custom  of  signing  a  work  at  its  begin- 
ning or  end,  is  most  surely  to  be  expected  to  have  signed 
his  poem.  The  presence  of  the  signatures  in  these  positions  is 
in  itself,  therefore,  a  strong  confirmation  that  they  are  in- 
tentional. But  of  still  greater  importance  is  the  light  which 
these  signatures  throw  on  Dante's  use  of  cryptography  as  a 
symbol  of  his  theme. 

Expressed  in  its  simplest  terms,  the  theme  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  a  quest.  In  the  beginning  of  the  poem  Dante  is 
lost;  he  has  lost  himself  in  being  lost  to  God.  He  begins  at 
once,  accordingly,  the  quest  to  find  himself,  and  it  is  on  this 
quest  that  he  traverses  the  universe,  which,  though  he  is  lost 
in  it,  is  still  himself,  his  own  human  condition  of  evil  and 
good.  But  at  last,  having  climbed  to  Paradise,  he  finds  God; 
and  it  is  in  finding  God  that  his  quest  is  ended,  for  in  finding 
God  it  is  himself  that  he  finds.  Dante  and  God,  son  and 
father,  human  and  divine,  are  found  together  as  one  and 
inseparable. 

Now  the  theme  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  as  thus  expressed, 
is  symbolized  by  the  use  which  Dante  makes  of  his  crypto- 
graphic signatures.  When,  for  instance,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  poem,  Dante  is  lost,  he  symbolizes  his  lost  estate  by 
losing  (or  hiding)  his  name  in  the  text  by  means  of  various 
cryptographic  devices.  Dante  thus  shows  himself  as  lost  in 
the  universe  just  as  his  name,  hidden  by  the  cryptographic 
spellings,  is  lost  in  the  text. 

And  when  Dante,  in  his  quest  to  find  himself,  traverses  the 
universe,  which  always,  in  all  its  diversities,  is  still  himself  in 
his  dual  nature  as  human  and  divine;  when,  in  other  words, 
he  shows  that  it  is  in  himself  that  he  is  lost  when  he  is  lost 
in  the  universe;  he  illustrates  the  identity  of  himself  and  the 
universe  by  the  cryptographic  devices  which  spell  his  own 
name  with  the  very  letters  with  which  the  various  aspects  of 
the  universe  itself  are  described. 

And  when  at  last  Dante  finds  God  and  finds  himself  in 
God,  he  illustrates  his  meaning  once  more  by  the  crypto- 
graphic devices  which  spell  his  name  in  the  very  words  that 
describe  his  vision  of  God. 


SIGNATURES  103 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  cryptographic  signatures  them- 
selves which  illustrate  the  theme  of  the  Divina  Commedia  as 
a  quest  in  which  Dante  is  lost  and  found.  The  first  that  I  will 
show  appears  on  the  marginal  letters  of  the  first  fines  of  the 
first  four  terzine  of  Inferno  i,  the  very  position  in  which  we 
have  already  seen  the  acrostic  nati: 

I  N 

4  A 

7  T 

10  I 

Now  the  acrostic  nati  refers  to  the  human  children  of  God 
who  are  born  into  the  selva  oscura  of  the  life  on  earth;  they 
are  mankind  in  general,  and  they  are  represented  in  the  poem 
by  Dante,  who  describes  himself  as  the  typical  human  being 
whose  experience  is  the  common  experience  of  all.  In  the 
sense  that  his  experience  as  an  individual  is  the  common 
experience  of  mankind,  Dante  identifies  himself  with  man- 
kind, and  it  may  not  be  unexpected,  therefore,  that  he  ex- 
presses this  identification  of  himself  with  mankind  by 
cryptographic  means. 

The  cryptographic  means  of  expressing  the  identification 
of  himself  with  mankind  appears  at  once  in  the  possibility  of 
identifying  to  a  certain  extent  the  words  nati  and  dante. 
These  two  words  have  three  letters  in  common:  n,  a,  t;  and  a 
cryptographic  signature  spelt  with  the  very  n,  a,  and  t 
already  used  in  the  acrostic  nati  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
Dante  himself  was  aware  of  the  common  letters  possessed  by 
the  two  words,  and  intended,  in  his  coincident  use  of  these 
letters  for  an  acrostic  nati  and  an  acrostic  dante,  to  express 
an  identification  not  only  of  the  words  themselves  but  of 
what  they  represent. 

In  order  to  show  the  acrostic  dante  that  coincides  with 
the  letters  n,  a,  and  t  of  the  acrostic  nati,  consider  the 
following  marginal  letters  on  the  same  lines  on  which  the 
nati  appears: 


I04      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

I  NE 

4  A 

7  T 

10  l'    NON    SO    BEN    RID 

Read:  i'  non  so  ben  ir.  dante 

This  acrostic  not  only  gives  a  signature  at  the  head  of  the 
poem  but  expresses  in  a  single  sentence  the  fundamental 
situation  as  described  in  the  lines  on  which  it  appears.  La 
diritta  via  era  smarrita^  and  Dante  does  not  know  how  to  go. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  there  is  to  be  found  on  these 
same  lines  another  acrostic  dante  that  coincides  even  more 
closely  with  the  nati.  Observe  that  the  last  of  the  four 
terzine  has  an  acrostic  on  its  three  lines: 

10  I 

11  TA 

12  C 

Read:  taci 

In  accordance  with  the  sense  of  this  taci,  the  reader  is 
perhaps  informed  that  he  is  keeping  something  silent  or  else 
commanded  to  keep  something  silent.  Now  observe  that  with 
the  preceding  line  the  acrostic  letters  may  be  considered: 

9       D 

10  I 

11  TA 

12  C 

Read:  taci  d 

May  not  the  reader  consider  that  this  acrostic  either  in- 
forms him  that  he  is  keeping  d  silent  or  else  commands  him 
to  keep  it  silent?  In  either  case,  there  is  suggested  a  silent  d, 
and  if  this  silent  d  is  added  to  the  acrostic  letters  ne,  a,  t,  i, 
the  spelling  is  i',  dante. 

Or  if  the  taci  indicates  that  the  whole  final  terzina  on 
which  it  appears  is  to  be  kept  silent,  the  last  line  of  the  frame 
would  then  become  the  ninth,  the  initial  of  which  is  d;  and 
the  acrostic  would  be  read  thus: 


SIGNATURES  105 

I         NE 
4  A 

7       T 
9       D 

Read:  dante 

With  whatever  conjecture,  and  whether  with  or  without 
the  sentence:  i'  non  so  ben  ir,  an  acrostic  dante  appears  on 
the  opening  lines  of  Inferno  i  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  a 
cryptographic  identification  of  dante  and  nati,  an  identifi- 
cation which  corresponds  to  the  identification  which  Dante 
makes  of  himself,  as  a  typical  human  being,  with  mankind  in 
general.  And  this  spelling  of  dante  is  lost  in  the  text  just  as 
Dante  himself  is  described  in  the  text  as  lost  in  the  selva 
OS  cur  a. 

Compare  this  identification  of  dante  and  nati  with  the 
identification  of  dante  and  fante  (p.  77). 

But  Dante  has  not  limited  himself  in  this  passage  to  the 
acrostic  form  of  signature;  the  passage  contains  two  interior 
sequences  each  spelling  dante  and  keying  together  on  the 
initial  t  of  Tanto,  line  7.  The  zigzag  course  of  these  sig- 
natures through  the  text  may  well  be  imagined  to  il- 
lustrate the  course  of  Dante  himself  after  he  had  lost  the 
diritta  via. 

The  two  interior  sequences  appear  thus: 

3  che  la  diritta  viA  era  smarrita 

4  ahi  quanto  a  Dir  qual  era  e  cosa  dura 

5  questa  sElva  selvaggia  ed  aspra  e   forte 

6  che  Nel  pensier  rinnuova  la  paura 

7  Tanto  e  amara  che  poco  e  piu  morte 

8  ma  pEr  trattar  del  ben  ch'i'vi   trovai 

9  diro  dell'Altre  cose  ch'io  v'ho  scorte 

10  i'non  so  ben  riDir  com'io  v'entrai 

11  tant'era  pien  di  sonNo  in  su  quel  punto 

Read  from  a  of  via^  3;  d  of  dir^  4;  e  of  selva^  5;  n  of  nel,  6; 
first  T  oi  tanto,  7:  dante. 

Read  from  the  same  t  oi  tanto,  7;  e  o^  per,  8;  a  oi  altre,  9; 
D  oi  ridir,  10;  second  n  of  sonno,  11:  dante. 


io6      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Let  us  now  turn  from  the  beginning  of  Inferno,  where 
Dante  shows  himself  by  cryptographic  devices  as  identical 
with  mankind  and  as  lost,  to  the  end  of  Paradiso.  In  the 
words  with  which  he  there  describes  his  vision  of  God,  Dante 
illustrates  by  cryptographic  devices  that  he  is  identical  with 
God  and  that  in  finding  God  he  finds  himself. 

The  passage  to  be  considered  first  is  Par.  xxxiii,  lines  121- 
132;  within  this  passage  is  hidden  a  most  remarkable  com- 
plex of  cryptographic  signatures.  The  passage,  which  fol- 
lows, describes  what  Dante  saw  in  his  vision  of  the  luce 
eterna,  the  eternal  light  being,  as  consistently  throughout 
the  Divina  Commedia,  the  symbol  of  God: 

O  quanto  e  corto  il  dire,  e  come  fioco  121 

Al  niio  concetto!  e  questo  a  quel  ch'  io  vidi 

E  tanto,  che  non  basta  a  dicer  poco. 
O  luce  eterna,  che  sola  in  te  sidi,  124 

Sola  t'  intendi,  e  da  te  intelletta 

Ed  intendente  te,  ami  ed  arridi! 
Quella  circulazion,  che  si  concetta  127 

Pareva  in  tre  come  lume  riflesso, 

Dagli  occhi  miei  alquanto  circonspetta, 
Dentro  da  se  del  suo  colore  stesso  130 

Mi  parve  pinta  della  nostra  effige, 

Per  che  il  mio  viso  in  lei  tutto  era  messo. 

Let  me  call  attention  first,  before  proceeding  to  the  crypto- 
grams, to  the  remarkable  play  on  sounds  suggesting  the 
sound  of  DANTE  in  lines  125  and  126,  and  indeed  throughout 
the  entire  passage.  The  letters  of  the  name  circulate  through 
the  text  like  motes  in  a  sunbeam,  now  and  then  almost 
spelling  the  name  complete.  Indeed,  in  this  circulation  of  the 
motes  of  DANTTE  in  the  sunbeam  of  the  luce  eterna,  the  name, 
i',  DANTE,  is  actually  spelled  in  the  letter  sequence,  line  125, 
DA  TE  IN.  The  figure  which  I  have  used  of  motes  circulating 
in  a  sunbeam,  appropriate  as  it  is  in  connection  with  the 
letters  of  dante  circulating  in  the  text  describing  the  luce 
eterna,  suggests  that  Dante  himself  may  have  had  the  figure 
in  mind.  And  if  such  may  have  been  the  case,  it  may  well  be 
imagined  that  there  is  a  double  entente  in  the  phrase,  lines 
127-128: 


SIGNATURES  107 

Quella  circulazion,  che  si  concetta 
Pareva  in  tre.* 

This  phrase,  as  I  take  it,  has  in  addition  to  its  manifest 
meaning  a  meaning  referring  to  the  cryptograms  contained 
in  the  text.  The  cryptic  allusion  that  I  see  in  the  phrase  may 
be  developed  in  the  following  fashion:  "That  circulation  of 
the  letters,  conceived  thus  as  dante,  appeared  in  three  ways 
or  signatures."  And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  out  oi  quella  circula- 
zion of  the  letters  three  signatures  do  indeed  appear. 

The  first  of  the  three  signatures  to  which  I  refer  is  the  letter 
sequence  already  referred  to:  da  te  in,  in  line  125,  spelling 
i'  DANTE.  Though  this  is  in  itself  not  a  particularly  interesting 
signature,  it  assumes  an  extraordinary  interest  from  the  fact 
that  it  is  one  of  three  signatures  which  have  in  common  the 
same  letter  d.  The  other  two  signatures  are  interior  sequences 
which  transect  each  other  on  this  d  and  form  a  cross.  Thus 
the  first  signature  is  a  dante  on  a  cross  which  is  composed  of 
two  interior  sequences,  each  spelling  dant  or  dante.  The 
sequences  appear  thus: 

123  e  tanTo  che  non  basta  a  dicer  poco 

124  0  luce  eterNa  che  sola  IN  te  sidi 

125  sola  t ' intendi  E  Da  te  intelletta 

126  ed  intendenTe  te  ami  ed  Arridi 

127  quellA  circulazion  che  si  concetta 

The  figure  of  the  cross  with  Dante  upon  it  appears  thus: 


123 

...T.  , 

124 
125 
126 

,  .  .N. 
.  .  .T. 

N 

E  DA  TE  IN 

A 

127 

A  .  , 

For  the  first  of  these  interior  sequences,  read  from  the 
second  t  oi  tanto^  line  123,  through  the  n  oi  eterna^  line  124, 
through  the  d  of  da^  line  125,  to  the  a  of  arridi^  line  126. 

*I  have  adopted  Toynbee's  reading  tre  in  place  of  te,  as  in  the  text  of 
Moore.  Nothing  consistent  with  the  sense  of  the  passage,  so  far  as  I  can  see, 
can  be  said  for  te.     Tre  as  an  allusion  to  the  Trinity  is  especially  appropriate. 


io8      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

These  letters  spell  dant.  For  dante  add  the  e  adjacent  to  the 
D,  line  125. 

For  the  second  interior  sequence,  read  from  the  a  oi  quelluy 
line  127,  through  the  second  t  o{  intendente,  line  126,  through 
the  D  of  da^  line  125,  to  the  n  of  /'«,  line  124.  These  letters 
spell  DANT.  For  dante  add  the  e  adjacent  to  d,  line  125,  as  in 
the  other  sequence. 

Notice  that  these  two  sequences  are  absolutely  identical 
in  their  spacing,  and  that  they  form  an  absolutely  sym- 
metrical cross.  The  first  sequence  starts  with  the  letter  t, 
on  the  sixth  space  of  line  123;  the  second  sequence  starts  with 
the  letter  a,  on  the  sixth  space  of  line  127.  The  second  letter 
of  the  first  sequence,  n,  falls  on  the  twelfth  space  in  line  124; 
the  second  letter  of  the  second  sequence,  t,  falls  on  the 
twelfth  space  of  line  126.  The  third  letter  of  both  sequences, 
the  D  of  line  125,  on  which  the  sequences  transect,  falls  on  the 
eighteenth  space  of  the  line.  The  fourth  letter  of  the  first 
sequence,  a,  falls  on  line  126  on  the  seventh  space  beyond  the 
transection;  the  fourth  letter  of  the  second  sequence,  n,  falls 
on  line  124  on  the  seventh  space  beyond  the  transection.  The 
two  feet  of  the  cross,  which  correspond  to  the  letters  with 
which  I  have  described  the  sequences  as  beginning,  are  five 
lines  apart;  the  two  heads,  which  correspond  to  the  letters 
with  which  I  have  described  the  sequences  as  ending,  are 
three  lines  apart;  and  the  transection  of  the  cross  is  on  the 
central  line  of  the  passage  in  which  the  cross  appears.  On  this 
middle  line,  line  125,  at  the  transection  is  the  sequence 
spelling:  i',  dante;  so  that  dante,  like  Christ,  is  on  the  cross, 
composed  of  his  own  name,  or  nature,  as  a  dualism. 

What  Dante  finds,  therefore,  when  he  looks  into  the 
eternal  light,  is  the  thrice  repeated  image  of  himself,  corre- 
sponding to  the  triune  God;  and  he  sees  himself  on  the  cross, 
as  Christ  was  on  the  cross.  In  finding  God  he  finds  himself 
in  the  image  of  God. 

Compare  this  cross  with  the  cross  formed  by  interior 
sequences  in  Par.  xix.  \i^-\ig  (pp.  163-4). 

In  addition  to  this  remarkable  cross  composed  of  two 
dante's  with  DANTE  crucified  upon  it,  there  is  an  anagram  in 


SIGNATURES  109 

the  passage  describing  the  vision  of  the  eternal  light.  I  was 
directed  to  this  anagram  by  the  suggested  sound  of  Dante's 
name,  just  as  I  was  directed  to  the  cross  by  the  suggested 
sound  of  his  name  in  the  earlier  lines  of  the  passage.  The 
suggested  sound  I  regarded  as  a  hint,  just  as  I  have  proved 
the  suggested  sound  to  be  a  hint  in  treating  of  the  crypto- 
graphic cross. 

Observe,  then,  as  a  hint  of  the  presence  of  the  anagram,  the 
words  with  which  lines  129  and  130  begin: 

129  DAGLI    OCCHI    MIEI 

130  DENTRO    DA    SE 

Observe  that  dagli  suggests  vaguely  the  ancestral  form  of 
Alighieri,  or  Aldighiero,  in  the  following  letters:  aldig; 
observe  that  dentro  begins  with  four  of  the  five  letters  of 
DANTE.  The  juxtaposition  of  these  two  words  suggesting  the 
sound  of  the  first  and  last  names  of  Dante  gave  me  the  idea, 
after  the  success  of  my  experiment  with  the  cryptographic 
cross,  that  Dante  might  have  intended  here  an  anagram. 
This  idea  was  reinforced  by  the  fact  that  the  words  at  the 
beginnings  of  lines  127-130  could  be  read  consecutively  to 
form  the  following  acrostic  sentence: 

Q.UELLA  CIRCULAZION  PAREVA  DAGLI  OCCHI  MIEI  DENTRO 
DA   SE. 

This  acrostic  sentence  corresponds  in  meaning  exactly  to 
what  we  have  found  was  true  of  the  circulazion  as  a  circu- 
lazion  of  letters  spelling  Dante's  name.  In  other  words,  the 
circulazion^  .  .  .  si  concetta  as  the  image  of  Dante, 
appeared,  when  Dante  looked  into  the  luce  eterna^  like  the 
image  of  his  own  eyes  (or  himselO  which  was  reflected  in  it. 
It  was  as  if  Dante  saw  his  own  eyes  reflected  back  from  the 
luce  eterna  in  the  form  of  the  circulazion.  So  much  for  a  partial 
justification  of  the  acrostic  sentence:  quella  circulazion 

PAREVA    DAGLI    OCCHI    MIEI    DENTRO    DA    SE.    But    this    Same 

sentence  may  also,  with  equal  truth  to  the  cryptographic 
character  of  the  passage  as  we  have  already  discovered  it, 
be  read  as  follows: 


no      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Q.UELLA   ciRCULAziON   PAREVA:   '' DagH  occhi  mtei 
dentro  da  se." 

In  other  words,  the  circulazion,  which  we  have  discovered  to 
be  a  circHng  of  letters  spelling  Dante's  own  name,  appeared 
also  in  the  form:  "dagli  occhi  miei  dentro  da  se." 

If,  then,  the  acrostic  sentence  says  that  the  circling  of 
letters  spelling  Dante's  name  appeared  also  in  the  form: 
dagli  occhi  miei  dentro  da  se,  can  the  statement  be 
justified?  It  may,  indeed,  for  the  words:  dagli  occhi  miei 
dentro  da  se,  are  an  anagram  which  may  be  read  as  follows: 

ECCOMI,    DIS,    DANTE    ALDIGHIERO. 

In  this  anagram,  accordingly,  Dante  utters  his  cry  of 
victory  and  exultation  as  he  finds  himself  at  last  in  the  very 
womb  of  the  divine  light  which  is  God.  Is  he  calling  back  to 
Dis,  the  emperor  of  Hell,  that  Dis  should  see  him  so  high 
above?  Or  is  he  exulting  over  God  himself,  who,  as  it  is  said 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  had  feared,  and  with  reason, 
that  man  would  make  himself  equal  with  Him;  is  he  calling 
to  God  to  see  him,  Dante,  as  identical  with  Dis  in  his 
usurpation  of  divinity?  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  in  view  of 
the  general  ambivalence  of  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  that  both  these  meanings  are  expressed  in  this 
anagram  at  the  close  of  the  poem. 

This  anagram  is  important,  moreover,  as  determining  the 
form  in  which  Dante  spelt  his  own  name:  Aldighiero.  This 
indeed,  was  an  early  form  of  the  name. 

There  remains  one  other  signature  in  the  closing  lines  of 
the  final  canto  of  the  poem  that  I  wish  to  show  here.  In 
Chapter  IX  the  reader  may  see  two  more.  Dante  says,  lines 
I37~i38,  that,  as  he  looked  into  the  eternal  light  which  is 
God  and  saw  the  image  of  himself, 

Veder  voleva,  come  si  convenne 
L'imago  al  cerchio,  e  come  vi  s'indova. 

In  the  lines  immediately  succeeding,  in  telling  how  he  lacked 
the  power  to  fulfill  this  desire  until,  in  a  flash,  the  wish  came, 
he  signs  his  name  in  a  final  interior  sequence: 


SIGNATURES  iii 

139  ma  non  eran  Da  cio  le  proprie  penne 

140  se  non  che  lA  mia  mente   fu  percossa 

141  da  un  fulgorE  in  che  sua  voglia  venne 

142  all'alta  faNTasia  qui  manco  possa 

Read  from  d  oi  da^  139;  a  oUa,  140;  e  oifulgore^  141 ;  nt  of 
fantasia,  142:  dante. 

This  sequence  is  absolutely  vertical  as  to  four  letters,  with 
the  fifth  adjacent. 

Thus  in  the  moment  of  realizing  his  wish,  the  wish  to 
understand  his  exact  relation  with  God  in  whom  he  finds 
himself,  it  is  his  name  (himself)  that  comes  as  the  fulfillment 
of  his  wish — his  name  which  here  signifies,  in  the  symbolic 
use  which  Dante  makes  of  cryptography  throughout  the 
Divina  Commedia,  that  the  relation  of  Dante  to  God  is  the 
relation  of  Dante  to  Dante,  of  self  to  self. 


Chapter  IV 
DXV 


Chapter  IV 
DXV 


npHE  personage  described  by  Beatrice,  Purg.  xxxiii.  43, 
-*-  as  "a  five  hundred,  ten,  and  five"  has  never  been  satis- 
factorily identified.  He  remains,  in  fact,  after  many  guesses, 
the  Iron  Mask  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  I  will  show  that  he  is 
Dante  himself. 

The  evidence  that  I  shall  here  present  that  Dante  himself 
is  designated  by  the  cryptic  number  is  based  on  the  crypto- 
grams contained  in  the  passage  in  which  the  number  is 
mentioned.  The  cryptograms  are  not,  however,  the  only 
evidence  that  I  have  to  offer;  I  had,  indeed,  not  yet  dis- 
covered them  when  I  first  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
identification  of  Dante  with  the  cryptic  number  was  in- 
dicated by  the  symbolism  of  the  poem. 

The  most  commonly  accepted  method  of  interpreting  the 
designation:  "a  five  hundred,  ten,  and  five,"  is  to  substitute 
for  the  three  numbers  mentioned  the  letters  which  represent 
these  numbers  in  the  Roman  notation.  Thus  five  hundred  is 
D,  ten  is  X,  and  five  is  v;  and  they  read  in  the  sequence  given: 
DXV.  If  the  V  and  the  x  are  transposed,  as  in  an  anagram,  the 
three  letters  spell  dvx,  or — since  v  and  u  are  interchangeable 
forms — DUX,  the  Latin  word  for  "leader." 

This  interpretation,  which  is  satisfactory  as  far  as  it  goes, 
fails,  however,  to  yield  the  name  of  the  dvx;  he  remains,  in 
fact,  as  anonymous  as  before.  And  in  the  opinion  of  certain 
commentators  his  anonymity  is  intentional.  The  reference  to 
the  dvx  is  prophetic;  he  is  said  to  be  coming,  as  a  leader 
"sent  by  God,"  at  some  future  date;  and  since  Dante  is  not 
supposed  to  have  had  the  gift  of  prophecy,  the  name  of  the 

[iiSl 


ii6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

leader  cannot  have  been  known  to  him,  no  matter  how  much 
he  may  have  hoped  for  or  believed  in  him.  In  the  opinion, 
therefore,  of  those  who  hold  that  the  dvx  is  intentionally 
anonymous,  Dante  quite  naturally  alluded  to  the  unknown 
leader  by  a  generic  term  that  would  apply  to  whatever 
particular  person  he  might  turn  out  to  be. 

More  commonly  held,  however,  is  the  opinion  that  the 
enigmatic  dvx  is  a  reference  to  a  particular  person.  In  the 
words  of  Moore,  "it  must  represent  in  some  way  or  other 
a  definite  name,  because  it  is  so  evidently  suggested  by  the 
riddle  of  the  number  of  the  Beast  in  Rev.  xiii.  i8."  The  verse 
in  Revelation  reads:  "Here  is  wisdom.  Let  him  that  hath 
understanding  count  the  number  of  the  beast:  for  it  is  the 
number  of  a  man:  and  his  number  is  Six  hundred  threescore 
and  six."  By  substituting  for  these  numbers  the  Hebrew 
letters  regarded  as  their  cabalistic  equivalents,  the  beast  has 
been  identified  as  Nero. 

It  seems  likely,  therefore,  from  the  analogy  of  the  cabalistic 
"  number  of  the  beast "  in  Revelation,  that  the  dvx,  as  "  a  five 
hundred,  ten,  and  five,"  is  some  sort  of  cabalistic  cryptogram 
for  the  name  of  a  particular  person. 

That  the  "number  of  the  beast"  was  indeed  Dante's 
model  for  the  dvx  as  "  a  five  hundred,  ten,  and  five  "  is  further 
proved  by  another  striking  analogy.  It  is  prophesied  of  the 
DVX,  Purg.  xxxiii.  44-45,  that  he 

ancidera  la  fuia 
Con  quel  gigante  che  con  lei  delinque. 

The  harlot  here  mentioned  is  evidently  suggested  by  "the 
great  whore  that  sitteth  upon  many  waters:  with  whom 
the  kings  of  the  earth  have  committed  fornication,"  Rev. 
xvii.  1-2;  and  the  giant  by  "the  beast  that  carrieth  her," 
Rev.  xvii.  7,  the  beast,  that  is,  whose  number  is  given  in  Rev. 
xiii.  These  analogies  between  Revelation  and  the  passage  in 
Purgatorio  prove  that  Dante  found  the  model  for  his  enigma 


DXV  117 

Jorte  in  the  cabalistic  "number  of  the  beast."  That  he  found 
his  model  in  the  Scriptures  disposes  finally  of  any  objection 
that  he  could  have  considered  cryptographic  devices  as 
unworthy  of  his  poem. 

Proceeding  on  the  analogy  with  "  the  number  of  the  beast," 
which  is  generally  accepted  as  a  cabalistic  cryptogram, 
various  commentators,  with  various  results,  have  attempted 
to  decipher  the  "five  hundred,  ten,  and  five"  by  the  method 
of  cabala.  This  method  consists  of  representing  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet  by  numbers.  Since  there  are  many  cabalistic 
systems,  which  differ  as  to  the  numbers  by  which  the  various 
letters  are  represented,  the  interpretation  must  depend  on 
the  system  that  is  adopted.  As  an  illustration  I  refer  specially 
to  the  process  by  which  Moore,  in  his  Studies  in  'Dante,  seeks 
to  prove  that  515  refers  to  Emperor  Henry  VII. 

The  entire  essay  might  well  be  quoted  for  my  purposes, 
for  its  detailed  erudition  reveals  the  vast  extent  of  cabalistic 
literature,  the  seriousness  with  which  learned  men  regarded 
it,  and  especially  the  likely  "acquaintance  and  even  friend- 
ship "  between  Dante  and  a  Jewish  writer  on  cabala,  Emanuel 
ben  Salomon.  Moore  thinks  that  Dante  would  have  desig- 
nated the  Emperor  Henry  as  "Arrico,"  and  that  then,  since 
the  science  of  cabala  was  originally  and  remained  predomi- 
nantly Hebrew,  he  would  have  transliterated  the  Italian 
name  into  the  nearest  Hebrew  equivalents.  As  there  is  no 
equivalent  for  "o,"  Moore  assumes  that  Dante  would  have 
assigned  to  it  the  value  4,  because  it  is  the  fourth  vowel; 
the  other  values  which  Moore  assigns  are  those  regularly 
accepted  in  Hebrew.  Thus  he  obtains: 


A 

I 

R 

200 

R 

200 

I 

10 

c  or  K 

100 

0 

4 

515 


ii8      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

By  a  different  application  of  the  cabalistic  method 
Scartazzini  arrives  at  what  he  regards  as  proof  that  the  dvx 
is  Can  Grande.  His  "proof"  depends,  among  other  things, 
on  his  giving  Can  Grande  the  title:  "Kan  Grande  de  Scala, 
Signore  de  Verona."  Moore  dismisses  Scartazzini's  solution 
in  the  following  words:  "Scartazzini  endeavors,  in  a  most 
preposterous  fashion,  to  make  the  number  515  indicate  *Can 
Grande'  by  the  help  of  a  descriptive  title  containing  a 
mixture  of  Latin  and  Italian  words,  and  by  then  selecting 
out  of  it  most  arbitrarily  certain  letters  and  neglecting  others 
.  .  .  He  has  still  to  invent  ...  a  purely  arbitrary  and 
imaginary  system  of  numerical  values  for  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet,  not  Latin,  nor  Greek,  nor  Hebrew." 

Some  of  the  objections  which  Moore  makes  to  Scartaz- 
zini's solution  are  applicable  to  his  own.  The  arbitrary 
character  of  Moore's  argument  shows  in  the  choice  of  the 
form  ARRico,  his  assumption  of  the  value  four  for  the  letter 
o,  his  dubious  use  of  k,  and  the  further  assumption  that 
Dante  would  have  used  for  the  numerical  equivalents  of 
Italian  letters  the  cabalistic  equivalents  of  the  letters  of  the 
Hebrew  alphabet.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  the  two 
great  Dante  scholars  agree  that  it  is  only  by  some  appli- 
cation of  the  cabalistic  method  that  the  enigma  is  to  be 
solved.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  in  justification  of  this  agree- 
ment, that  Dante  knew  the  literature  of  cabala.  As  Moore 
points  out,  "the  method  could  scarcely  have  been  unfamiliar 
to  one  so  much  interested  in  Biblical  exegesis  as  Dante. 
Indeed,  his  own  processes  of  interpretation  have  much  in 
common  with  Kabbalistic  methods."  Moreover,  there 
appeared  in  Dante's  life-time  the  celebrated  book  Zjohar,  an 
important  and  widely  circulated  work  on  the  cabalistic 
interpretation  of  Scripture. 

Evidence  exists,  as  I  believe,  in  the  symbolism  of  the 
Divina  Commedia  that  Dante  was  acquainted  with  this  work; 
and  it  is  not  impossible  that  he  may  have  been  acquainted, 
as  Moore  suggests,  with  the  work  of  his  contemporary 
Emanuel  ben  Salomon,  an  authority  on  the  subject  of  cabala. 

There  is  a  device  used  by  Emanuel   ben  Salomon,  the 


DXV  119 

contemporary  of  Dante  to  whom  I  have  just  referred,  which 
shows  an  interesting  variation  of  the  cabalistic  method.  In 
order  to  designate  himself  at  the  end  of  one  of  his  works  he 
says: 

"My  name  is  70  and  40,  and  a  Nun  (n)  joined  to  a  Vau 
(v  or  u),  and  the  ending  of  my  name  is  'El.'" 

In  this  cabalistic  signature,  made  by  an  expert  in  cabala, 
it  is  important  to  note  that,  along  with  the  use  of  numbers 
regarded  as  cabalistic  equivalents  of  letters,  some  of  the 
actual  letters  of  the  name  are  used.  This  use  of  a  combination 
of  numbers  and  letters  will  show,  I  think,  a  kind  of  precedent 
for  the  method  by  which  I  interpret  the  dxv. 

In  my  own  interpretation  of  the  "five  hundred,  ten,  and 
five"  I  accept  as  a  partial  interpretation  the  reading:  dvx. 
In  other  words,  I  regard  the  cryptogram  as  double^  in  the 
sense  that  it  not  only,  as  I  shall  show,  names  Dante  himself 
but  also  names  him  leader,  dvx,  then,  is  the  first,  or  prelimi- 
nary, form  into  which  the  "five  hundred,  ten,  and  five"  is  to 
be  translated.  But  how,  in  its  turn,  is  dvx  to  be  translated 

into  DANTE  ? 

The  translation  of  DVX  into  dante  requires,  for  the  perfect 
working  out  of  the  cryptogram,  a  spelling  of  Dante's  whole 
name  in  which  the  last  name  has  ten  letters.  The  cryptogram 
will  work  out,  however,  on  a  nine  letter  form  of  the  last  name 
ending  in  o,  as  in  the  accepted  form  for  the  name  of  Dante's 
father,  Alighiero.  An  instance  of  Dante's  own  use  of  a  spelling 
with  ten  letters  exists,  I  believe,  in  the  anagrammatic  read- 
ing: EccoMi,  dis,  dante  aldighiero  (see  page  no.) 

We  need  not  rely,  however,  on  this  anagram  for  authority 
for  a  ten-letter  spelling  of  Dante's  last  name.  For  early  ex- 
amples I  refer  to  Toynbee's  Dante  Dictionary  and  to  Sche- 
rillo's  //  Cognome  Alighieri  in  Alcuni  Capitoli  della  Biografia 
di  Dante^  which  show  that  there  is  early  evidence  for  the 
forms  Aldighiero^  Aldighieri,  and  Allighieri.  The  name  de- 
rives from  the  name  of  the  wife  of  Dante's  ancestor  Cac- 
ciaguida,  which  was,  according  to  some  spellings,  Aldighiera 
degli  Aldighieri.  The  singular  masculine  would,  then,  in 
this  original  form,  have  been  Aldighiero. 


I20      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

For  the  translation  of  dvx  into  Dante's  name  I  take,  then, 
the  form  dante  aldighiero.  The  other  ten-letter  spellings  of 
Alighieri  will  answer,  as  will  also  the  nine-letter  spelling 
ending  in  o:  Alighiero\  but  they  answer  less  perfectly. 

The  D  of  DVX,  obtained  as  the  equivalent  of  five  hundred, 
corresponds  to  the  initial  letter  d  in  dante. 

The  V,  or  five,  corresponds  to  the  number  of  letters  in 
DANTE.  It  also  corresponds  to  e,  the  last  letter  in  dante, 
since  e,  as  the  fifth  letter  of  the  alphabet,  is  the  alphabetical 
equivalent  of  five,  dante  is  indicated,  therefore,  not  only  as 
to  the  number  of  letters,  but  also  as  to  the  first  and  last 
letters,  as  in  the  common  method  of  indicating  a  proper  name 
without  spelling  it  in  full:  o.  .  .e. 

The  X,  or  ten,  corresponds  to  the  ten  letters  in  aldighiero. 
It  also  indicates  in  their  proper  order  both  the  initial  and  the 

final  letter  of  aldighiero,  or  a o.  This  indication 

appears  in  writing  ten  according  to  the  Arabic  notation.  The 
I  of  lo  corresponds  to  the  initial  a  of  aldighiero,  since  a, 
as  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet,  has  the  numerical  value  of 
one.  And  the  o  of  lo  corresponds  to  the  final  o  in  aldi- 
ghiero, since  o  as  zero  and  o  as  a  letter  have  the  same  form. 

Thus  the  ten  indicates  not  only  the  number  of  letters  in  the 
last  name,  but  also  the  first  and  last  letters  of  the  name: 
A.  .  .  .o.  In  case,  however,  the  name,  as  in  Alighiero^  was  a 
nine-letter  name  ending  in  o,  the  ten  of  the  cryptogram  still 
indicates  the  name  by  its  initial  and  its  final  letters:  a  ....  o. 

The  correspondence  between  "five  hundred,  ten,  and 
five,"  DVX,  and  dante  aldighiero  is  sufliciently  close.  And 
this  correspondence  is  determined  by  variations  in  a  cabalistic 
method  which  is  known  to  have  been  used  by  Dante's  con- 
temporary, the  authority  on  cabala,  Emanuel  ben  Salomon. 
This  method,  as  we  saw,  consists  in  a  combination  of  letters 
and  of  numbers  regarded  as  the  equivalents  of  letters. 
Dante's  variations — if  it  be  admitted  that  the  method  I  have 
ascribed  to  him  is  his — from  the  method  of  Salomon  consists 
in  a  combined  use  of  the  Roman  and  Arabic  notation  of 
numbers  and  in  taking  as  the  numerical  value  of  a  letter,  not 
the  number  that  would   be  assigned  to  it  in  the  Hebrew 


DXV  121 

alphabetjbut  thenumberof  itsposition  in  theltalian alphabet. 

The  identification  of  the  dvx  and  dante  aldighiero  may 
certainly  be  regarded  as  indicated  by  the  preceding  interpre- 
tation. But  in  the  very  passage  that  treats  of  the  enigma  forte 
there  is  further  evidence  of  a  cryptographic  character  for 
this  identification.  This  evidence  consists  of  a  double  acrostic, 
a  series  of  interior  sequences,  and  an  acrostic  on  the  proper 
names  contained  in  the  passage. 

First,  for  the  double  acrostic,  see  the  five  terzine,  Purg. 
xxxiii.  43-57: 

Nel  quale  un  cinquecento  diece  e  cinque,      43 

Messo  da  Dio,  ancidera  la  fuia 

Con  quel  gigante  che  con  lei  delinque. 
E  forse  che  la  mia  narrazion  buia,  46 

Qual  Temi  e  Sfinge,  men  ti  persuade, 

Perch'  a  lor  modo  lo  intelletto  attuia; 
Ma  tosto  fien  li  fatti  le  Naiade,  49 

Che  solveranno  questo  enigma  forte, 

Senza  danno  di  pecore  o  di  biade. 
Tu  nota;  e  si  come  da  me  son  porte,  52 

Cosi  queste  parole  segna  ai  vivi 

Del  viver  ch'  e  un  correre  alia  morte; 
Ed  abbi  a  mente,  quando  tu  le  scrivi,  55 

Di  non  celar  qual  hai  vista  la  pianta, 

Ch'  e  or  due  volte  dirubata  quivi. 

There  are  several  features  in  the  text  of  this  passage  which 
seem  to  indicate  that  these  five  terzine  are  to  be  taken  as  an 
acrostic  frame. 

First,  the  passage  begins  with  the  line  in  which  the  all 
important  "five  hundred,  ten,  and  five"  is  mentioned. 
Moreover,  the  number  of  this  line  is  43,  a  number  whose 
integers  have  the  perfect  number  7  for  their  sum  and  which 
express,  moreover,  the  fundamental  relation:  3  to  4,  on  which 
the  number  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia  is  based. 

Second,  the  passage  ends  with  a  terzina  that  begins,  line 
z^Zj^  with  the  letters:  ed.  These  letters,  the  last  and  first  of 
DANTE,  seem  often  to  be  used  by  Dante  both  to  indicate  his 
own  name  and  to  mark  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  a  passage 
that  contains  a  cryptogram. 


122      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Third,  the  initials  of  the  three  lines  of  this  last  terzina  have 
a  special  significance  which  I  shall  have  to  wait  till  the  next 
chapter  to  explain  in  full.  These  initial  letters  are: 

E 
D 
C 

Note  that  e,  as  the  fifth  letter  in  the  alphabet,  has  the  value 
of  5,  D,  in  the  Roman  notation,  has  the  value  of  500.  And  c, 
in  the  Roman  notation,  has  the  value  of  100.  If  the  zeros  are 
disregarded,  it  appears  that  the  integers  which  these  numbers 
yield  are  5  and  5  and  i,  exactly  the  same  integers  contained 
in  the  number  of  the  enigma:  500,  10,  and  5.  In  the  next 
chapter  I  will  show  in  detail  how  Dante  constantly  uses  as  a 
signature  a  variety  of  combinations  of  letters  which  yield 
these  integers.  For  the  present,  then,  I  simply  note  that  the 
five  terzine,  lines  43  to  57,  are  indicated  as  an  acrostic  frame 
by  being  bounded  symmetrically  at  the  beginning  and  end 
by  the  significant  integers:  5,  5,  and  i. 

Consider,  then,  that  the  five  terzine  are  indicated  as  an 
acrostic  frame.  The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine 
are : 

43       N 

46  E 

49  M 

52  T 

55  E 

Read:  mente 

But  this  acrostic  mente  is  not  the  only  acrostic  on  these 
lines.  Consider  on  the  same  lines  the  following  marginal 
letters: 


43 

N 

46 

E 

49 

MA 

52 

T 

55 

ED 

Read: 

ME, 

DANTE 

DXV  123 

Exactly  as  Dante  identifies  himself  (his  name)  by  means 
of  a  double  acrostic  with  nati  (see  pp.  103-5),  with  fante  (see 
p.  77),  and  with  mente  (see  pp.  183-4),  so  here,  by  the  same 
device,  he  again  identifies  himself  with  mente.  Mente,  as 
appears  in  the  reference  to  the  Trinity  in  Inferno  iii,  is  the 
intellectual  form  of  the  divine  Son,  or  Christ,  with  whom 
Dante  constantly  identifies  himself  throughout  the  Divina 
Commedia. 

The  presence  of  me,  dante  in  acrostic  form  in  the  passage 
which  contains  the  enigma  J orte:  "five  hundred,  ten,  and 
five,"  is  an  association  which  points  indubitably  to  Dante  as 
the  mysterious  person  whom  the  enigma  masks.  Dante,  as 
MENTE,  is  the  prophesied  dvx. 

There  are  some  interesting  double  meanings  in  the  passage 
containing  these  acrostics  which  may  be  taken  as  hints  of  the 
cryptic  intention.  Note  first  the  words,  line  55:  Ed  abbi  a 
mente.  If  ed  is  taken,  as  it  so  often  seems  to  be  meant,  to 
indicate  dante,  the  quotation  may  be  understood  in  the 
sense:  "Have  Dante  in  mind."  Moreover,  the  ed  and  mente 
in  the  same  phrase  repeat  the  association  of  dante  and 
MENTE  that  appears  in  the  associated  acrostic  readings:  me, 

DANTE  and  MENTE. 

Note,  second,  the  words,  line  56:  Di  non  celar.  Di  is  the 
spelled  form  of  d;  it  may  be  understood  in  connection  with 
this  phrase  as  the  initial  of  dante.  The  words  Di  non  celar 
may  therefore  be  read,  as  having  a  double  sense,  for  the 
imperative  "Do  not  conceal  dante." 

Note  also  the  possible  double  meaning,  line  52,  in  regard 
to  the  enigma,  of  the  words:  Come  da  me.  All  these  possible 
double  meanings,  slight  or  farfetched  as  they  may  seem  in 
themselves  taken  separately,  have  a  cumulative  value  in 
connection  with  my  reading  of  the  enigma  and  the  acrostic 
readings  which  I  have  shown. 

Note  now,  in  confirmation  of  my  interpretation  of  the  dvx 
as  dante  aldighiero,  the  interior  sequences  in  the  same 
passage  in  which  the  dvx  is  mentioned  and  the  acrostic  me, 
dante  is  found. 

The  first  interior  sequence  to  which  I  will  call  attention 


124      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

begins  on  the  initial  oi cinquecento,  line  43,  and  reads  directly 
down.  The  c  of  cinquecento  is  to  be  replaced,  exactly  as  it  is 
replaced  in  the  reading:  dvx,  by  a  d,  since  d  is  the  equivalent 
o{ cinquecento  in  the  Roman  notation.  The  sequence  to  which 
I  refer  appears  in  the  following  form : 

43  nel   quale  un  D 

44  messo  da  dio  A 

45  con  quel   gigaNTE 

The  letters  of  the  sequence,  which  I  have  thus  capitalized, 

spell:   DANTE. 

The  regularity  of  this  sequence  is  noteworthy.  The  d, 
the  A,  and  the  n  are  each  in  the  fourteenth  letter  space  of 
their  respective  lines;  and  the  te  is  immediately  adjacent 
to  the  N.  The  possibility  that  such  a  sequence  might  be 
accidental  is  very  slight.  The  intention  is  confirmed,  first,  by 
the  mathematical  regularity,  and,  second,  by  the  fact  that 
the  beginning  of  the  sequence  coincides  with  the  beginning 
of  the  cryptic  number  and  that  the  sequence  and  the  cryptic 
number  both  give  for  their  readings  the  name  of  the  same 
person:  dante. 

There  are  two  more  interior  sequences  in  this  passage,  and 
the  three  sequences  appear  as  follows: 

43  nel  quale  un  Dinquecento  Diece  e  cinque 

44  messo  da  dio  AnciderA  la  fuia 

45  con  quel  gigaNTE  che  con  lei  delinque 

46  e  forse  che  la  mia  narrazion  buia 

47  qual  temi  e  sfiNge  men  ti  persuade 

48  perch 'a  lor  modo  lo  inTelletto  attuia 

49  ma  teste  fien  li  fatti  le  naiADE 

For  the  second  sequence  read  the  d  oi  diece ^  the  second  of 
the  cryptic  numbers,  line  43;  the  second  a  of  ancidera^  44; 
the  NTE  o{  gigante^  45:  dante. 

For  the  third  sequence  read  the  n  o{  sfinge^  47;  the  first  t  of 
intelletto^  48;  the  ade  o{  naiade,  49:  dante. 

The  second  sequence,  which  runs  from  d  of  diece  to  nte  of 
^/^««/^,  is  mathematically  regular  in  its  spacing.  It  is  strongly 
corroborated    as    intentional    by    its    relation    to    the    first 


DXV  I2S 

sequence;  it  starts  on  the  second  of  the  cryptic  numbers, 
just  as  the  first  sequence  starts  on  the  first  cryptic  number; 
it  uses  for  its  a  the  last  letter  of  ancidera^  just  as  the  first 
sequence  uses  for  its  a  the  first  letter  of  the  same  word;  and 
it  uses  for  its  nte  the  nte  used  by  the  first  sequence.  The 
third  sequence  is  likewise  spaced  with  mathematical 
regularity. 

The  fourth  interior  sequence  which  I  shall  show  here  is  in 
a  passage  a  few  lines  below  the  foregoing,  as  follows: 

52  tu  nota  e  si   come  da  me  son  porTE 

53  cosi   queste  parole  SEGNA  ai  vivi 

54  del  viver  ch'e  uN  correre  alia  morte 

55  ed  abbi  A  mente  quando  tu  le  scrivi 

56  Di  non  celar  qual  hai  vista  la  pianta 

Read  the  te  oiporte^  52;  segna,  53;  the  n  of  un^  54;  the  a 
before  mente ^  c^c^-^  the  d,  initial  of  56:  segna  dante. 

Note  the  hints  in  the  text  which  call  attention  to  the 
signature.  The  signature  starts  on  the  d  of  Di  non  celar, 
which  words  may  be  taken,  as  I  have  indicated,  in  a  double 
sense  to  mean,  "Do  not  conceal  Dante."  And  the  signature 
ends  on  a  line  that  begins  with  what  may  be  under- 
stood as  an  injunction  to  the  reader  to  be  on  the  lookout: 
Tu  nota.  And  on  the  same  line  are  the  significant  words: 
Come  da  me. 

This  sequence  is  mathematically  regular.  It  begins  with  the 
D  on  the  first  space  of  56;  on  the  eighth  space  after  d,  on  the 
line  above,  is  a;  on  the  eighth  space  after  a,  on  the  line  above, 
is  n;  the  eighth  space  after  n,  on  the  line  above,  is  an  empty 
space,  since  no  letter  is  to  be  read  here,  and  the  word  segna 
is  immediately  adjacent;  and  on  the  line  above,  on  the  eighth 
space  beyond  the  empty  space  adjacent  to  segna  where  no 
letter  is  to  be  read,  is  the  t  followed  by  the  e  which  completes 
the  signature. 

I  need  hardly  repeat  that  the  mathematical  regularity  of 
the  sequence  is  a  strong  argument  against  the  possibility  that 
it  might  be  accidental. 

In  the  passage  of  five  terzine  which  contains  in  its  first  line 


126     THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

the  cryptic  un  cinquecento  diece  e  ciiique  we  have  now  seen 
an  acrostic  signature  and  several  signatures  in  interior  se- 
quences. The  passage  contains  still  another  signature  by 
still  another  cryptographic  device — -the  device  of  an  acrostic 
on  a  group  of  proper  names.  The  proper  names  mentioned 
in  the  passage  which  we  are  here  considering  are  dig,  temi, 
SFiNGE,  and  NAiADE.  Consider  the  following  initial  and 
contiguous  letters  in  these  proper  names: 


DIG 

DI 

TEMI 

TE 

SFINGE 

SFINGE 

NAIADE 

NA 

Read:  dante  si  finge 

Interesting  in  connection  with  this  signature  is  the  fact 
that  it  is  made  possible  by  Dante's  use  of  a  word  to  which 
the  editors  of  the  Divina  Commedia  commonly  refer  as  a 
blunder:  Naiade  for  the  Latin  Laiades. 

In  recapitulation  of  my  argument  that  Dante  is  the  dxv, 
I  have  shown  in  the  preceding  pages  a  close  correspondence 
between  the  cryptic  number,  "five  hundred,  ten,  and  five," 
and  the  name  dante  aldighiero,  a  form  of  the  name  for 
which,  as  I  have  shown,  there  is  early  evidence  and  the 
evidence  of  the  anagram:  eccomi,  dis,  dante  aldighiero. 
I  have  also  shown  an  acrostic  signature:  me,  dante,  in  the 
passage  in  which  the  cryptic  number  appears,  a  series  of 
four  interior  sequences  in  the  same  passage,  reading  dante, 
and  an  acrostic  on  the  proper  names  in  the  passage.  More- 
over, I  have  pointed  out  a  number  of  expressions  in  the 
passage  that  may  be  taken  as  having  double  meanings  which 
again  indicate  dante.  Such  a  complex  of  signatures,  which 
can  scarcely  have  been  accidental,  is  the  cryptographic  proof 
that  Dante  and  the  dxv  are  one  and  the  same. 

For  the  symbolism  of  the  dxv  see  the  discussion  in  Chapter 
VI  of  the  symbolism  of  the  Veltro  and  especially  the  dis- 
cussion, in  Chapter  VIII,  of  the  symbolism  of  the  Mystic 
Procession,  in  connection  with  which  the  dxv  is  prophesied. 
The  dxv,  as  I  will  show,  is  to  be  understood  to  indicate 
Dante  as  reborn  and  therefore  as  divine. 


Chapter  V 
THE  UNIVERSAL  FORM 


Chapter  V 
THE  UNIVERSAL  FORM 


THERE   is   a   curious   statement   in   the    fifth   canto  of 
Paradiso^  hnes  98-99,  that  Dante  makes  about  himself. 
He  says: 

pur  di  mia  natura 
Trasmutabile  son  per  tutte  guise! 

This  statement  that  Dante  is  by  nature  transmutable  into  all 
guises  is  an  important  clue  both  to  the  symbolism  and  to  the 
cryptography  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 

But  what  are  the  guises  into  which  Dante  is  transmutable  ? 
One  of  them,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter,  is 
certainly  the  dxv,  the  cryptic  number,  five  hundred,  ten  and 
five,  into  which,  as  I  have  shown,  the  name  of  Dante  can  be 
transmuted. 

What,  then,  are  his  other  guises?  In  the  present  chapter 
I  will  show  various  purely  cryptographic  guises  into  which 
Dante,  or,  rather,  the  name  of  Dante,  is  transmutable. 
I  will  leave  to  the  next  chapter  the  discussion  of  the  symbolic 
guises,  the  personifications,  into  which  he  transmutes  himself 
as  an  individual. 

The  passage  in  which  Dante  comes  nearest  to  giving  a 
literal  statement  as  to  the  method  of  discovering  his  guises, 
the  transmutations  of  which  he  remains  himself  the  constant 
factor,  is  to  be  found  in  Paradiso  xxxiii.  85-93,  in  the  words 
with  which  he  describes  what  he  saw  in  his  vision  of  the 
somma  luce. 

The  passage  reads  as  follows: 

[  129 1 


I30      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Nel  suo  profondo  vidi  che  s'  interna,  85 

Legato  con  amore  in  un  volume, 
Cio  che  per  I'universo  si  squaderna; 

Sustanzia  ed  accidenti  e  lor  costume,  88 

Quasi  conflati  insieme  per  tal  modo, 
Che  cio  ch'  io  dico  e  un  semplice  lume. 

La  forma  universal  di  questo  nodo  91 

Credo  ch'  io  vidi,  perche  piu  di  largo, 
Dicendo  questo,  mi  sento  ch'  io  godo. 


Dante  is  here  describing  how  he  saw  in  his  vision  the  union 
of  substance  and  accidents  and  their  modes.  The  words 
substance^  accident^  and  mode  belong  to  the  technical  vocabu- 
lary of  scholastic  philosophy;  they  are  used  to  express  the 
relation  of  appearance  to  reality.  The  appearance  of  things  is 
infinite,  the  infinite  phenomena  of  the  universe.  But  under- 
lying the  infinite  phenomena  and  uniting  them  is  a  reality 
that  is  single,  the  one  and  universal  substance  of  God.  The 
appearances  of  things,  therefore,  are  the  accidents  and  modes 
of  the  divine  substance;  they  are  the  divine  manifestations, 
the  guises  into  which  God  himself  is  transmuted.  The  key  to 
these  transmutations  of  God  into  all  the  guises  of  his 
phenomena,  the  solution — in  other  words — of  the  problem  of 
appearance  and  reality,  is  what  Dante  says  he  found  in  his 
mystic  vision  of  the  Supreme  Light. 

Now  when  Dante  declares  that  he  himself  is  by  his  nature 
transmutable  into  all  guises  he  is  making  no  confession  of 
weakness  or  instability  of  character,  as  is  often  supposed. 
He  is  actually  declaring,  on  the  contrary,  that  his  trans- 
mutability  into  all  guises  is  the  transmutability  of  God,  who 
manifests  himself  in  all  the  divine  guises  of  the  phenomena  of 
the  universe.  Dante  is  asserting,  therefore,  his  own  divine 
character;  he  is  identifying  himself  with  God. 

If,  then,  as  Dante  says  in  describing  his  vision  of  the 
Supreme  Light,  he  solved  the  problem  of  appearance  and 
reality,  seeing  and  understanding  the  relation  of  the  infinite 
phenomena  of  the  universe  to  the  divine  substance  that 
makes  them  one,  if,  in  other  words,  he  found  the  key  to  the 
transmutations  of  God  into  the  guises  of  God,  he  found,  per- 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  131 

force,  the  key  to  his  own  transmutations  into  all  the  guises  of 
himself.  The  key  that  unlocks  the  mystery  of  the  divine 
appearances  is  the  key  that  unlocks  the  mystery  of  his  own, 
since  the  mystery  is  the  same  for  the  appearances  of  God  and 
the  appearances  of  Dante.  Important  for  us,  therefore,  are 
the  exact  words  with  which  Dante  expresses  himself  as  having 
found  this  key.  They  are  so  very  important,  indeed,  that  I 
will  repeat  them: 

La  forma  universal  di  questo  nodo 
Credo  eh'  io  vidi. 

These  words,  which  are  capable  of  a  double  meaning,  give 
the  key  to  the  "guises"  of  Dante. 

The  obvious  meaning  which  these  words  convey  is  simply 
this:  "The  universal  form  of  this  knot  I  believe  that  I  saw." 
But  it  is  possible  to  understand  them  as  follows:  "The 
universal  form  of  this  knot  I  believe  as  10  vidi."  In  other 
words,  Dante  may  here  be  understood  to  say:  "  I  believe  that 
the  universal  form  of  this  knot  is  10  vidi" — taking  thus  the 
words  10  vidi  as  being  a  form  in  themselves  quite  apart  from 
their  denotation. 

But  how,  as  I  have  here  suggested,  can  the  words  10  vidi 
be  "the  universal  form"  of  the  guises  of  Dante?  How  can 
they  be  the  key  to  his  transmutations  of  himself  as  an  in- 
dividual or  as  a  name  ?  The  answer  is  obvious.  The  words  10 
vidi,  considered  as  a  cryptogram,  are  the  equivalent  of  the 
cryptic  number  ^'jive  hundred,  ten,  and  five  ^'  and  therefore  in 
turn  equivalent,  as  I  demonstrated  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
to  Dvx  and  to  dante  aldighiero  (or,  if  the  reader  prefers, 

to  DANTE  ALDIGHIERI  or  DANTE  ALIGHIERO).  The  letters  IO  of 

10  VIDI  are  the  equivalent,  in  the  Arabic  notation  of  numbers, 
of  ten;  the  letters  vi  of  vidi  are  the  Italian  spelling  of  the 
letter  v,  which  in  the  Roman  notation  of. numbers  is  five; 
and  the  letters  di  of  vidi  are  the  Italian  spelling  for  the  letter 
D,  which  in  the  Roman  notation  is  five  hundred.  The  corres- 
pondences may  be  expressed  more  clearly,  perhaps,  as 
follows : 


132      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

lo  =      lO 

VI  (v)    =       5 

DI    (d)     =     500 

The  transmutation  of  the  words  of  the  universal  form 
10  viDi  into  Dvx  may  be  shown  as  follows: 

10    =   ten    =   X  (in  the  Roman  notation) 
VI  =  V 

DI  =  D 

Rearranged,  these  letters  spell  dvx. 

The  transmutation  of  the  words  of  the  universal  form 
ID  VIDI  into  DANTE  proceeds  by  the  method  described  in  the 
preceding  chapter  for  transmuting  "five  hundred,  ten,  and 
five"  into  dvx  and  into  dante  aldighiero. 

10  =  10  =ALDiGHiERO,  the  I  of  lo  representing  the  alpha- 
betical equivalent  of  one,  or  a,  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet 
and  the  initial  of  aldighiero;  the  o  of  10  representing  the 
last  letter,  or  o,  of  aldighiero;  and  the  10,  as  a  number, 
representing  the  ten  letters  of  the  name.  As  I  said  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  aldighiero  is  the  form  of  the  name  for 
which  there  is  documentary  evidence  and,  as  I  have  found, 
the  evidence  of  the  anagram  (see  p.  1 10).  But  if  the  reader  is 
unwilling  to  admit  the  evidence  for  this  form  of  the  name,  the 
10,  as  a  ten,  of  10  vidi  is  transmutable,  as  1  showed  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  to  any  ten-letter  spelling  of  the  name 
in  so  far  as  it  designates  the  number  of  letters  of  the  name,  or 
to  a  nine-letter  spelling  ending  in  o,  as  in  Alighiero^  in  that  it 
designates  by  its  i  the  initial  and  by  its  o  the  final  letter. 

VI  =  V,  or  five,  =  first,  the  number  of  letters  in  dante;  and 
second,  the  letter  with  which  dante  ends,  or  e,  which,  as  the 
fifth  letter  of  the  alphabet,  has  the  numerical  value  of  five. 

DI  =D,  the  initial  letter  of  dante. 

lo  VIDI  is,  therefore,  "the  universal  form"  which  appears, 
by  transmutation,  in  the  name  of  Dante,  and  in  his  guise  as  a 
"five  hundred,  ten,  and  five,"  and  in  dvx. 

In  the  foregoing  exposition  of  10  vidi  as  "the  universal 
form  "  of  dante,  I  have  confined  myself  to  the  purely  crypto- 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  133 

graphic  analogies  between  10  vidi  and  dante  as  a  name.  In 
addition  to  these  cryptographic  analogies,  however,  there  is  a 
striking  analogy  between  the  sense  of  the  words  10  vidi  and 
the  character  of  Dante — the  character,  at  any  rate,  which  he 
ascribes  to  himself  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  The  analogy  to 
which  I  now  refer  may  have  further  determined  Dante  in  his 
choice  of  10  vidi  as  his  "  universal  form."  The  sense,  "  I  saw," 
expresses,  indeed,  the  very  theme  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 
Dante  is  the  seer\  he  saw  the  universe  from  bottom  to  top; 
he  saw  God;  and  in  God  he  saw  himself.  The  universal  form 
10  VIDI  expresses,  therefore,  not  only  a  cryptographic  analogy 
with  the  name  of  Dante  but  an  analogy  with  his  character  in 
the  poem.  It  is  not  inconceivable,  moreover,  that  in  the 
identification  which  he  makes  in  the  poem  of  his  own  nature 
with  the  divine  nature,  Dante  may  have  intended  a  punning: 
10,  VI  Di,  as  "I,  there  God." 

The  importance  of  the  forma  universal  as  the  clue  to  the 
cryptographic  guises,  or  disguises,  of  Dante  is  indicated 
by  an  acrostic  reading  in  the  very  passage  in  which  t\\Q forma 
universal  is  mentioned.  The  six  terzine.  Par.  xxxiii.  91-108, 
are: 

La  forma  universal  di  questo  nodo  91 

Credo  ch'  io  vidi,  perche  piu  di  largo, 

Dicendo  questo,  mi  sento  ch'  io  godo. 
Un  punto  solo  m'  e  maggior  letargo,  94 

Che  venticinque  secoli  alia  impresa, 

Che  fe'  Nettuno  ammirar  1'  ombra  d'  Argo. 
Cosi  la  mente  mia,  tutta  sospesa,  97 

Mirava  fissa  immobile  ed  attenta, 

E  sempre  di  mirar  faceasi  accesa. 
A  quella  luce  cotal  si  diventa,  100 

Che  volgersi  da  lei  per  altro  aspetto 

E  impossibil  che  mai  si  consenta; 
Perocche  il  ben  ch'  e  del  volere  obbietto,  103 

Tutto  s'  accoglie  in  lei,  e  fuor  di  quella 

E  difettivo  cio  che  li  e  perfetto. 
Omai  sara  piu  corta  mia  favella,  106 

Pure  a  quel  ch'  io  ricordo,  che  di  un  fante 

Che  bagni  ancor  la  lingua  alia  mammalia. 

Consider  the  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine: 


134      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


91 

L 

94 

U 

97 

C 

100 

A 

103 

P 

106 

0 

Read  down  on  lines  91,  94,  97,  and  100:  luca. 

Read  down  on  97,  100,  103,  and  106:  capo. 

Each  of  the  acrostic  words  is  spelt  on  four  terzine,  so  that 
they  overlap,  the  last  two  letters  of  the  first  word  being  also 
the  first  two  letters  of  the  second  word.  Exactly  in  the  middle 
of  this  acrostic  reading,  between  the  two  letters  used  in  both 
words,  is  the  acrostic  me,  spelt  on  the  initials  of  lines  98  and 
99.  The  complete  reading  may  be  shown  thus: 


91 

L 

94 

U 

97 

C 

98 

M 

99 

E 

100 

A 

103 

P 

106 

0 

The  complete  reading  is  therefore:  luca  capo.  me.  The  me 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Dante  is  present  in  the 
passage.  Capo,  like  the  words  viso  and  faccia,  indicates  the 
device  of  the  person  concealed.  "Head  shines,"  therefore, 
is  a  confirmation  of  the  forma  universal  as  a  disguise  for 
Dante.  The  first  words  of  the  line,  97,  on  which  the  acrostic 
capo  begins  are:  Cos)  la  mente  mia^  so  that  the  text  and  the 
acrostic  are  related  in  meaning.  Moreover,  as  we  have  seen, 
Dante  identifies  himself  with  menle  in  general.  The  idea  of  the 
acrostic  luca  appears  in  the  text  in  the  words:  ^  quella  luce^ 
line  100,  the  line  on  which  the  acrostic  luca  ends. 

Note  that  on  the  first  lines  of  the  two  terzine,  103-108, 
may  be  read  an  acrostic:  poema;  so  that,  as  a  variant  for  the 
acrostic:  luca  capo,  there  may  be  read  on  the  same  lines  an 
acrostic:  luca  poema. 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  135 

There  is  another  confirmation  of  the  cryptic  character  of 
the  forma  universal  in  the  initials  of  the  three  lines  of  the 
terzina  in  which  the  forma  universal  is  mentioned.  The 
initials  of  these  lines  are: 


91 

L 

92 

C 

93 

D 

These  three  letters,  considered  as  indicating  numbers  in 
the  Roman  notation,  represent  respectively  50,  100,  and  500. 
By  disregarding  the  zeroes,  we  have  here  5,  i,  and  5,  the 
integers  of  the  cryptic  number  of  the  prophesied  dxv,  in 
connection  with  the  forma  universal. 

As  a  symbol  of  himself  Dante  constantly  uses  any  combi- 
nation of  letters  which  may  be  transmuted  into  these 
integers,  since  from  these  integers  his  own  name  can  be 
reconstructed.  Before  proceeding,  therefore,  to  show  the  more 
important  specific  guises  of  Dante  I  will  show  a  few  examples 
of  his  use,  as  symbols  of  his  own  name,  of  various  combi- 
nations of  letters  that  may  be  transmuted,  by  disregarding 
the  zeroes,  into  a  5,  a  i,  and  a  5. 

The  following  passage.  Par.  xxxiii.  46-57,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Ed  io  ch'  al  fine  di  tutti  i  disii  46 

M'  appropinquava,  si  com'  io  dovea, 

L'  ardor  del  desiderio  in  me  finii. 
Bernardo  m'  accennava,  e  sorridea,  49 

Perch'  io  guardassi  suso;  ma  io  era 

Gia  per  me  stesso  tal  qual  ei  volea; 
Che  la  mia  vista,  venendo  sincera,  52 

E  piu  e  piu  entrava  per  Io  raggio 

Deir  alta  luce,  che  da  se  e  vera. 
Da  quinci  innanzi  il  mio  veder  fu  maggio  55 

Che  il  parlar  nostro,  ch'  a  tal  vista  cede, 

E  cede  la  memoria  a  tanto  oltraggio. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 


136      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


46 

E 

49 

BERNARDO 

52 

C 

55 

DA 

Read:  ceda 

BERNARDO 

This  reading  is  appropriate  to  the  text.  Bernardo  has  been 
directing  the  eyes  of  Dante  to  God,  and  he  yields  his  place, 
as  intermediator,  when  Dante,  as  he  says  himself,  becomes 

per  me  stesso  tal  qual  ei  volea. 

The  chief  cryptographic  interest  of  the  passage,  however, 
is  not  in  this  acrostic,  but  in  the  variants  which  it  contains 
of  Dante's  numerical  signature.  The  initials  of  the  first,  the 
third,  and  the  fourth  terzina  may  be  transmuted  respectively 
into  a  5,  a  I,  and  a  5. 

The  initials  of  the  first  terzina  are: 

46  E 

47  M 

48  L 

E,  as  the  fifth  letter  of  the  alphabet,  has  the  value  in  cabala 
of  5;  M,  in  the  Roman  notation,  is  1,000;  and  l,  in  the  Roman 
notation,  is  50.  By  disregarding  the  zeroes  we  have  a  5,  a  i, 
and  a  5. 

The  initials  of  the  third  terzina  are: 

52  c 

53  E 

54  D 

C,  in  the  Roman  notation  is  100;  e,  in  cabala,  is  5;  and  d, 
in  Roman  notation,  is  500.  By  disregarding  the  zeroes  we 
have  a  5,  a  I,  and  a  5. 

The  initials  of  the  fourth  terzina,  d,  c,  e,  are  the  same  in 
different  order,  and  give  therefore  the  same  integers. 

But  why,  if  there  is  a  numerical  signature  on  the  first,  the 
third,  and  the  fourth  terzina,  should  there  be  none  on  the 
second  ?  The  absence  here  is  only  apparent,  for  the  signature 
is  concealed  in  an  interior  sequence: 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  137 

49  bernardo  m'accennava  e  sorrlDea 

50  perch 'io  guardassi  suso  ma  10  era 

51  gia  per  me  stesso  tal  qual  el  Volea 

Notice  that  in  sorridea,  49,  is  d  with  i  beside  it;  im- 
mediately below,  50,  in  the  same  letter  space,  is  o,  with  i 
beside  it;  and  immediately  below  is  i,  with  v  beside  it.  All 
these  letters  spell  10  vidi,  the  "universal  form"  itself,  and 
give,  therefore,  the  integers  of  the  cryptic  number,  515. 

Notice  that  the  passage  on  which  the  acrostic  ceda 
BERNARDO  appears  begins  with  the  words  Ed  io.  These  words, 
as  we  shall  see,  are  also  a  cryptographic  signature. 

Notice,  moreover,  that  the  letters  on  the  line  indicating 
the  sequence,  the  letters,  that  is,  that  fall  in  an  exactly 
vertical  line,  spell  dig. 

Thus  in  the  very  passage  in  which  Dante  says  in  effect: 
Io  vidi  Dio,  he  makes  in  one  of  the  four  terzine  in  question  an 
interior  sequence:  10  vidi,  with  a  special  emphasis  on  the 
letters  dig;  and  in  each  of  the  other  three  terzine  acrostic 
initials  with  the  numerical  value  of  10  vidi.  The  coincidence 
in  such  a  passage  of  an  interior  sequence:  lo  vidi,  with  three 
numerical  equivalents  in  acrostics  is  strong  confirmation  for 
the  argument  that  10  vidi  is  the  "universal  form"  that  may 
be  transmuted  into  dante,  and  the  guises  of  dante,  by  a 
system  of  alphabetical  and  numerical  equivalents. 

It  may  be  noted  that  in  connection  with  the  one  overt 
mention  of  the  name  of  Dante  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
there  appear  in  acrostic  form  the  letters:  vid,  which  yield  in 
Roman  notation  the  same  number  as  10  vidi:  515.  The  four 
terzine  beginning  with  "Dante,"  Purg.  xxx.  55-66,  are: 

'Dante,  perche  Virgilio  se  ne  vada,  55 

Non  pianger  anco,  non  planger  ancora; 
Che  pianger  ti  convien  per  altra  spada.' 

Quasi  ammiraglio,  che  in  poppa  ed  in  prora     58 
Viene  a  veder  la  gente  che  ministra 
Per  gli  altri  legni,  ed  a  ben  far  la  incuora, 

In  sulla  sponda  del  carro  sinistra,  61 

Quando  mi  volsi  al  suon  del  nome  mio, 
Che  di  necessita  qui  si  registra, 


138      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Vidi  la  Donna,  che  pria  m'  appario  64 

Velata  sotto  1'  angelica  festa, 
Drizzar  gli  occhi  ver  me  di  qua  dal  rio. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 

55       D 

58         QUASI 
61  I 

64  V 

Read:  quasi  vid 

This  suggestion  of  10  vidi  in  the  acrostic  quasi  vid,  is 
curiously  repeated  in  the  text  itself,  where,  along  with  the 
mention  of  Dante,  there  is  constant  reiteration  of  the 
elements  of  10  vidi.  This  reiteration  will  appear  in  the 
following  method  of  capitalizing  the  text: 

55  D  ante,    perche     V  irgil     10     se  ne     V  a  D  a 

62  quando  mi     V  olsi   al   suon  D  el   nome  m  10 

64  V   i   D   i   la  D  onna  che  pria  m'appar  10 

66  D  rizzar  gli  occhi  V  er  me  di  qua  dal   r  10 

In  line  55  10  vidi  is  repeated,  reading,  first,  from  the  first  of 
the  line  to  the  centre,  and  reading,  second,  from  the  last  of 
the  line  to  the  centre. 

This  repetition  of  d,  v,  and  10  in  the  passage  which  contains 
the  one  overt  mention  of  his  name  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
confirms  the  use  of  10  vidi  as  a  cryptographic  symbol  of  the 
name  of  Dante. 

There  is  a  curious  use  of  10  vidi  in  Par.  xxx.  91-99,  which 
further  confirms  the  words  as  a  cryptographic  symbol.  The 
passage  is: 

Poi  come  gente  stata  sotto  larve,  91 

Che  pare  altro  che  prima,  se  si  sveste 
La  sembianza  non  sua  in  che  disparve; 

Cosi  mi  si  cambiaro  in  maggior  feste  94 

Li  fiori  e  le  faville,  si  ch'  io  vidi 
Ambo  le  corti  del  ciel  manifeste. 


THE    UNIVERSAL    FORM  139 

O  isplendor  di  Dio,  per  cu'  io  vidi  97 

L'  alto  trionfo  del  regno  verace, 
Dammi  virtu  a  dir  com'  io  lo  vidi. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  three  terzine: 

91        POI 

94       C 
97        O 
Read:  copio 

What  is  it  that,  as  Dante  says  in  the  acrostic,  he  copies? 
I  suggest  that  it  is  the  words  of  the  "universal  form",  10  vidi. 

Lines  95,  97,  99  end  in  vidi^  one  of  the  only  three  words, 
so  far  as  I  can  discover,  which  Dante  uses  as  rhymes  in  an 
identical  sense.  He  has  many  "perfect"  rhymes,  but  in  the 
perfect  rhyme  the  sense  is  different,  though  the  sound  is  the 
same.  He  uses  Crista  as  an  identical  rhyme  in  three  passages, 
and  the  Latin  word  me,  Purg.  xxxiii.  10  and  12,  The  use  of 
vidi  to  rhyme  with  itself  in  the  same  way  that  Crista  is  used 
to  rhyme  with  itself  suggests  that  10  vidi  and  Crista  are 
identified  as  symbols  in  the  way  that  Dante  constantly 
identifies  himself  with  Christ  in  the  symbolism  of  the  entire 
poem.  And  the  use  of  me  in  the  same  way  confirms  the 
suggestion. 

The  usual  explanation  of  this  repetition  of  vidi,  thus  used 
as  a  rhyme  with  itself,  is  that  Dante  wished  to  emphasize  the 
intensity  of  his  vision.  This  explanation  is  good  as  far  as  it 
goes.  But  see  what  the  final  words  really  are: 

95  10  VIDI 
97  ID  VIDI 
99    10  LO  VIDI 

Here  is  Dante's  symbol  10  vidi  repeated  in  a  most  signifi- 
cant passage.  Dante  is  looking  into  the  light  of  God  and  sees 
the  image  of  himself  as  10  vidi,  exactly  as  in  the  passage  in 
which  10  vidi  appears  in  connection  with  theforma  universal. 
Notice  as  possible  hints  of  10  vidi  as  a  disguise  of  Dante, 
the  words:  gente  stata  sotto  larve,  and:  mi  si  cambiaro. 


I40      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  following  passage,  hif.  xxvi.   19-24,  consists  of  two 
terzine: 

AUor  mi  dolsi,  ed  ora  mi  ridoglio,  19 

Quand'  io  drizzo  la  mente  a  cio  ch'  io  vidi; 
K  piu  Io  ingegno  afFreno  ch'  io  non  soglio, 

Perche  non  corra  che  virtu  nol  guidi;  22 

Si  che  se  Stella  buona,  o  miglior  cosa 
M'  ha  date  11  ben,  ch'  io  stesso  nol  m'  invidi. 

Consider,  first,  on  all  the  lines  of  this  passage  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


19 

A 

20 

QU 

21 

E 

22 

PER 

23 

SI 

24 

M 

Read:  feremas  qui 

The  command,  expressed  in  this  acrostic,  to  "remove 
here"  may  refer  to  the  telestic  device  by  which  the  signature 
10  VIDI  appears: 


19 

(ridogl) 

10 

20 

VIDI 

21 

(sogl) 

10 

22 

(g) 

UIDI 

23 

COSA 

24 

(in) 

VIDI 

Thus  10  VIDI  is  repeated  twice,  vidi  thrice.  The  sense  of  the 
passage  is  amusing  in  connection  with  the  signatures;  Dante 
is  curbing  his  genius  {ingegno)  so  that  he  may  not  have  reason 
to  grudge  himself  the  good.  Ingegno  is  a  suggestive  word  here, 
meaning  "artifice"  and  "wit,"  as  we  find  it  in  the  phrase 
ingegno  sottile^  Purg.  xii.  66  (see  p.  14). 

The  repetition  of  the  vidi  rhyme  should  be  compared  with 
Par.  xxx.  95-97-99.  There  we  have  the  same  word  in  the  same 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  141 

sense,  whereas  here  we  have  a  "perfect"  rhyme,  the  letters 
the  same,  since  u  equals  v,  but  the  sense  different. 

Confirming  10  vidi  as  a  cryptic  designation  of  Dante  is  an 
acrostic  on  the  passage  in  which  the  words  lo  vidi  are  used 
for  the  first  time  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  Inf.  i.  64: 

Quand'io  vidi  cestui  nel  gran  diserto. 

The  four  terzine,  Inf.  i.  55-66,  ending  with  the  terzina  in 
which  this  first  use  of  the  words  lo  vidi  appears,  are: 

E  quale  e  quei  che  volentieri  acquista,  55 

E  giugne  il  tempo  che  perder  lo  face, 

Che  in  tutt'  i  suoi  pensier  piange  e  s'  attrista: 
Tal  mi  fece  la  bestia  senza  pace,  58 

Che,  venendomi  contra,  a  poco  a  poco 

Mi  ripingeva  la,  dove  il  Sol  tace. 
Mentre  ch'  io  rovinava  in  basso  loco,  61 

Dinanzi  agli  occhi  mi  si  fu  offerto 

Chi  per  lungo  silenzio  parea  fioco. 
Quand'  io  vidi  costui  nel  gran  diserto,  64 

'Miserere  di  me'  gridai  a  lui, 

'Qual  che  tu  sii,  od  ombra  od  uomo  certo.' 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

55       E 

58  TA 

61  ME 

64         QUAND    10    VIDI 

Read:  "10  vidi"  qua  me,  dante 

The  second  time  that  the  words  Io  vidi  appear  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  in  Inf.  ii.  8: 

O  mente,  che  scrivesti  cio  ch'  io  vidi. 

The  cryptograms  in  the  passage  in  which  the  10  vidi  thus  ap- 
pears confirm  again  the  words  as  a  designation  for  Dante. 
The  first  four  terzine  of  the  canto  read  as  follows: 

Lo  giorno  se  n'  andava,  e  1'  aer  bruno 
Toglieva  gli  animai  che  sono  in  terra. 
Dalle  fatiche  loro;   ed  io  sol  uno 


142      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

M'  apparecchiava  a  sostener  la  guerra  4 

Si  del  cammino  e  si  della  pietate, 

Che  ritrarra  la  mente,  che  non  erra. 
O  Muse,  o  alto  ingegno,  or  m'  aiutate:  7 

O  mente,  che  scrivesti  c\d  ch'  io  vidi, 

Qui  si  parra  la  tua  nobilitate. 
Io  cominciai:   'Poeta  che  mi  guidi,  10 

Guarda  la  mia  virtu,  s'  ella  e  possente. 

Prima  che  all'  alto  passo  tu  mi  fidi. 

On  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine,  as  we  have  already  noted, 
are  the  following  marginal  letters: 


I 

LO 

4 

M 

7 

0 

10 

10 

l'omo 

10 

Read; 

Dante  is  here  associated,  in  his  descent  into  Hell,  as  I 
suggested  in  Chapter  II,  with  the  dying  day. 

Note  now  on  the  three  lines  of  the  third  terzina,  within 
which  the  10  vidi  appears,  the  following  marginal  letters: 

7  CM 

8  o 

9  QUI 

Read:  omo  qui 

This  acrostic  repeats  in  effect  the  acrostic  on  the  ten-line 
frame,  and  says  that  the  "Man"  is  here  in  the  very  terzina 
which  contains  10  vidi. 

In  addition  to  the  acrostics  in  this  passage  there  is  a 
telestic  which  even  more  precisely  identifies  10  vidi  with 
Dante.  This  telestic  appears  on  lines  3-8.  Notice,  in  con- 
nection with  these  lines,  that  the  first  contains  the  words 
Ed  io,  which,  as  I  shall  show  later,  are  another  cryptographic 
guise  of  Dante,  and  that  the  last  line  contains  the  10  vidi. 
The  telestic  on  these  lines  appears  in  the  following  telestic 
letters: 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  143 


3 

NO 

4 

RA 

5 

E 

6 

A 

7 

TE 

8 

DI 

Read:  10  era  dante 

This  telestic:  10  era  dante,  reading  as  it  does  with  the  di 
of  to  vidiy  associates  10  vidi  with  Dante. 

The  third  time  that  the  words  lo  vidi  appear  in  the  Divina 
Commedia,  and  the  first  time  that  they  appear  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  line,  is  in  Inf.  iv.  121 : 

lo  vidi  Elettra  con  molti  compagni. 

This  line  falls  within  the  five  terzine,  Inf.  iv.  11 8-132: 

Cola  diritto  sopra  il  verde  smalto  118 

Mi  fur  mostrati  gli  spiriti  magni, 

Che  del  vederli  in  me  stesso  n'  esalto. 
lo  vidi  Elettra  con  molti  compagni,  121 

Tra'  quai  conobbi  Ettore  ed  Enea, 

Cesare  armato  con  gli  occhi  grifagni. 
Vidi  Cammilla  e  la  Pentesilea,  124 

Dair  altra  parte  vidi  il  re  Latino 

Che  con  Lavinia  sua  figlia  sedea. 
Vidi  quel  Bruto  che  caccio  Tarquino,  127 

Lucrezia,  Julia,  Marzia  e  Corniglia, 

E  solo  in  parte  vidi  il  Saladino. 
Poi  che  innalzai  un  poco  piu  le  ciglia,  130 

Vidi  il  Maestro  di  color  che  sanno 

Seder  tra  filosofica  famiglia. 

Notice  first  that  the  lo  vidi  at  the  beginning  of  the  ter- 
zina  121-123  is  followed  by  a  Fidi  at  the  beginning  of  each 
of  the  next  two  terzine.  Such  a  symmetrical  repetition  of 
a  word  is  often  used  by  Dante  as  a  hint  of  the  presence  of  a 
cryptogram.  Consider  now  the  following  marginal  letters 
of  the  first  lines  of  the  five  terzine: 


144       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


ii8 

CO 

121 

I 

124 

V 

127 

V 

130 

POI 

COPIO 

V, 

Read; 

V,  V,  and  i  correspond,  in  Roman  notation,  to  5,  5,  and  i, 
so  that  they  yield  the  integers  of  the  cryptic  number  515. 
In  saying  thus  in  this  acrostic  in  connection  with  the  words 
lo  vidi  that  "I  copy  515,"  Dante  may  be  understood  to 
indicate  the  association  of  himself  with  the  cryptic  number 
and  the  "universal  form,"  10  vidi. 

That  Dante  is  indeed  making  a  cryptographic  reference  to 
himself  appears  not  only  from  the  cryptographic  use  which 
he  makes  of  the  proper  names  (see  p.  445),  but  also  from  the 
acrostic  on  the  first  lines  of  the  remaining  terzine  of  the  canto. 

The  terzine  immediately  following  the  terzine  on  which  we 
find  the  acrostic:  copio  v,  v,  i,  read  as  follows: 

Tutti  lo  miran,  tutti  onor  gli  fanno.  133 

Quivi  vid'  io  Socrate  e  Platone, 

Che  innanzi  agli  altri  piu  presso  gli  stanno. 
Democrito,  che  il  mondo  a  caso  pone,  136 

Diogenes,  Anassagora  e  Tale, 

Empedocles,  Eraclito  e  Zenone: 
E  vidi  il  buono  accoglitor  del  quale,  139 

Dioscoride  dico:  e  vidi  Orfeo, 

Tullio  e  Lino  e  Seneca  morale: 
Euclide  geometra  e  Tolommeo,  142 

Ippocrate,  Avicenna  e  Galieno, 

Averrois,  che  il  gran  commento  feo. 
Io  non  posso  ritrar  di  tutti  appieno;  145 

Perocche  si  mi  caccia  il  lungo  tenia, 

Che  molte  volte  al  fatto  il  dir  vien  meno. 
La  sesta  compagnia  in  due  si  scema:  148 

Per  aitra  via  mi  mena  il  savio  duca, 

Fuor  della  queta  nell'  aura  che  trema; 
E  vengo  in  parte  ove  non  e  che  luca.  15 1 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 


THE    UNIVERSAL    FORM  145 


133 

T 

136 

D 

139 

E 

142 

E 

145 

10  N 

148 

LA  S 

151 

E 

Read:  dante  e  elios 

The  last  word  of  the  canto  is  luca^  and  the  region  described 
in  the  passage  on  which  the  acrostic  appears  is  one 

Ch'  emisperio  di  tenebre  vincia. 

— Inj.  IV.  69 

Dante  is  here  again  associated  with  the  sun  as  his  symbol. 
For  another  acrostic  elios  see  page  349.  For  the  cryptograms 
in  connection  with  the  last  instance  of  the  use  of  lo  vidi^ 
Par.  xxxiii.  122,  see  pages  106-8. 

lo  viDi  is  frequently  used  in  the  Divina  Commedia  as  a 
cryptogram  for  dante  to  indicate  the  presence  of  other 
cryptographic  devices  in  the  text.  The  appearance  of  10  vidi 
at  the  beginning  of  a  line,  or  in  the  interior  of  a  line,  is  often 
the  hint  that  the  text  is  speaking  in  a  hidden  way  of  Dante 
himself. 

ED  10 

The  next  cryptographic  guise  of  dante  to  which  I  wish  to 
call  attention  is  the  words  ed  10.  By  the  system  already 
shown  of  alphabetical  and  numerical  equivalents,  these  words 
may  be  transmuted  into  either  the  "  universal  form,"  10  vidi, 
or  dante.  In  other  words,  ed  10,  as  a  symbol,  has  the  value  of 
the  cryptic  number,  five  hundred,  ten,  and  five.  This  numeri- 
cal value  appears  as  follows: 

E,  as  the  fifth  letter  =  5 
D,  in  Roman  notation  =  500 
10,  in  Arabic  notation    =      10 


146      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  use  of  ed  io  at  the  beginning  of  a  terzina,  like  the 
similar  use  of  lo  vidi,  is  frequent  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 
This  use  is  not  accidental  to  the  literal  meaning  of  the  poem; 
it  is  often  meant  to  have  a  cryptic  reference  to  Dante  himself 
and  to  indicate  the  presence  of  other  cryptograms  in  the  text. 
And  indeed,  quite  apart  from  the  numerical  value  of  ed  id 
as  a  515,  the  words  suggest  the  name  of  Dante  in  the  follow- 
ing obvious  way:  10,  d  .  .  .  e,  or  "  I,  Dante,"  the  name  dante 
being  suggested  by  the  common  convention  of  indicating  a 
proper  name  by  its  first  and  last  letters. 

Dante's  use  of  the  words  ed  10  as  a  cryptogram  for  dante 
is  further  determined,  I  believe,  by  the  fact  that  the  same 
letters  in  the  same  order  may  be  read:  e  dig.  In  view  of  the 
identification,  so  fundamental  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  which 
Dante  makes  of  himself  with  God,  he  may  surely  be  suspected 
of  having  wished  to  suggest  the  punning  ed  10,  e  dig.  In 
other  words,  he  expresses  by  this  cryptographic  device  the 
symbolism  of  the  poem  that  Dante,  by  virtue  of  his  divine 
nature,  is  God. 

Let  me  now  cite  several  instances  of  the  use  of  ed  ig  as  a 
cryptographic  device  for  dante. 

The  four  terzine,  Purg.  xiv.  16-27,  are: 


Ed  io:  'Per  mezza  Toscana  si  spazia  16 

Un  fiumicel  che  nasce  in  Falterona, 
E  cento  miglia  di  corso  nol  sazia. 

Di  sopr'  esso  rech'  io  questa  persona:  19 

Dirvi  ch'  io  sia,  saria  parlare  indarno; 
Che  il  nome  inio  ancor  molto  non  suona.' 

*Se  ben  lo  intendimento  tuo  accarno  22 

Con  lo  intelletto,'  allora  mi  rispose 
Quei  che  diceva  pria,  'tu  parli  d'  Arno.' 

E  r  altro  disse  a  lui:  '  Perche  nascose  25 

Questi  il  vocabol  di  quella  riviera, 
Pur  com'  uom  fa  dell'  orribili  cose?' 


Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  147 

16  ED    10 

19  DI    S 

22  S 

25  E 

Read:  "ed  10,"  disse 

"He  said:  ed  10,"  is  the  answer  to  the  question  in  the  text. 
The  passage  is  a  play  on  the  idea  of  name,  identification,  and 
concealment.  Dante  is  answering  the  question  who  he  is;  he 
says  it  were  vain  for  him  to  tell  who  he  is,  for  as  yet  his  name 
does  not  make  much  noise.  He  does  not  even  name  the  Arno, 
but  defines  its  position  and  leaves  it  to  his  questioner  to 
penetrate  his  meaning.  In  the  literal  meaning  of  the  text, 
therefore,  he  avoids  giving  his  name.  But  the  question  thus 
left  unanswered  is  answered  in  the  acrostic:  "ed  10,"  disse. 

In  Par.  xxxiii.  28-39,  Bernardo  is  praying  that  a  way  may 
be  found  for  Dante  to  see  God.  The  four  terzine  are: 

Ed  io,  che  mai  per  mio  veder  non  arsi  28 

Piu  ch'  io  fo  per  lo  suo,  tutti  i  miei  preghi 

Ti  porgo,  e  prego  che  non  sieno  scarsi, 
Perche  tu  ogni  nube  gli  disleghi  31 

Di  sua  mortalita  coi  preghi  tuoi, 

Si  che  il  sommo  piacer  gli  si  dispieghi. 
Ancor  ti  prego,  Regina,  che  puoi  34 

Cio  che  tu  vuoli,  che  conservi  sani, 

Dopo  tanto  veder,  gli  afFetti  suoi. 
Vinca  tua  guardia  i  movimenti  umani:  37 

Vedi  Beatrice  con  quanti  Beati 

Per  li  miei  preghi  ti  chiudon  le  mani.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 

28       ED  10 

31  PER 

34       A 
37       VI 
Read:  via  per  "ed  io" 

The  words  of  the  acrostic  are  in  effect  a  repetition  of  the 
prayer  of  Bernardo  for  a  "way  for  Dante." 


148      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  following  passage,  Inf.  xv.   22-33,  consists  of   four 
terzine: 

Cosi  adocchiato  da  cotal  famiglia,  22 

Fui  conosciuto  da  un,  che  mi  prese 
Per  lo  lembo  e  grido:  'Qua!  maraviglia  ?' 

Ed  io,  quando  il  suo  braccio  a  me  distese,       25 
Ficcai  gli  occhi  per  lo  cotto  aspetto 
Si  che  il  viso  abbruciato  non  difese 

La  conoscenza  sua  a!  mio  intelletto;  28 

E  chinando  la  mia  alia  sua  faccia, 
Risposi:  'Siete  voi  qui,  ser  Brunetto?' 

E  quegli:  'O  figliuol  mio,  non  ti  dispiaccia      31 
Se  Brunetto  Latini  un  poco  teco 
Ritorna  indietro,  e  lascia  andar  la  traccia.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 

22       c 

25  ED       ID 

28  LA 

31  E 

Read: cela  ed  10 

The  following  passage  consists  of  the  first  four  terzine  of 
Purg.  xviii: 

Posto  avea  fine  al  suo  ragionamento 

L'  alto  Dottore,  ed  attento  guardava 

Nella  mia  vista  s'  io  parea  contento: 
Ed  io,  cui  nuova  sete  ancor  frugava,  4 

Di  fuor  taceva,  e  dentro  dicea:  'Forse 

Lo  troppo  domandar,  ch'  io  fo,  gli  grava.' 
Ma  quel  padre  verace,  che  s'  accorse  7 

Del  timido  voler  che  non  s'  apriva, 

Parlando,  di  parlare  ardir  mi  porse. 
Ond'  io:  'Maestro,  il  mio  veder  s'  avviva  10 

Si  nel  tuo  lume,  ch'  io  discerno  chiaro 

Quanto  la  tua  ragion  porti  o  descriva: 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  149 

I       p 

4         ED    10 

7         MA 

10       O 

Read:  poema,  signed  with  the  device  of  Dante,  ed  10. 

The  signature  thus  attached  to  the  poem  is  confirmed  by 
the  acrostic  reading  of  the  first  four  lines  of  this  passage. 
Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  four  lines: 

1  POSTO 

2  l'a 

3  NELL 

4  ED    10 

Read  downwards :  posto  l'anell  : "  ed  10."  This  may  mean 
that  ED  10,  as  Dante's  signature,  is  the  "seal  set." 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xxvi.  103-114,  consists  of 
four  terzine: 

Poiche  di  riguardar  pasciuto  fui,  103 

Tutto  m'  ofFersi  pronto  al  suo  servigio, 

Con  r  affermar  che  fa  credere  altrui. 
Ed  egli  a  me:  'Tu  lasci  tal  vestigio,  106 

Per  quel  ch'  i'  odo,  in  me  e  tanto  chiaro, 

Che  Lete  nol  puo  tor,  ne  farlo  biglo. 
Ma  se  le  tue  parole  or  ver  giuraro,  109 

Dimmi  che  e  cagion  per  che  dimostri 

Nel  dire  e  nel  guardare  avermi  caro?' 
Ed  io  a  lui:  *Li  dolci  detti  vostri  112 

Che,  quanto  durera  1'  uso  moderno, 

Faranno  cari  ancora  i  loro  inchiostri.' 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


103 

PO 

106 

E 

109 

MA 

112 

ED 

10 

Read:  poema.  ed  id 

The  poema  is  signed  by  the  cryptic  signature. 


ISO      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xxiv.,  49-54,  consists  of  two 
terzine: 

Ma  di'  s'  io  veggio  qui  colui  che  fuore       49 

Trasse  le  nuove  rime,  cominciando: 

Donne,  ch'  avete  intelletto  d'  Amove.' 
Ed  io  a  lui:  'Io  mi  son  un  che,  quando      52 

Amor  mi  spira,  noto,  ed  a  quel  modo 

Che  ditta  dentro,  vo  significando.' 

Line  51  is  a  quotation  from  one  of  Dante's  canzoni.  On  all 
the  lines  of  the  two  terzine  consider  the  following  marginal 
letters: 

49  MA 

50  TR 

51  DO 

52  ED    I 

53  A 

54  C 

Read:  marco  di  dante 

The  MARCO  di  DANTE  seems  to  be  the  line  quoted  from  his 
canzone,  which  is  followed  immediately  by  his  signature: 
ED  10. 

The  following  passage,  Inf.  xi,  61-72,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Per  r  altro  modo  quell'  amor  s'  obblia  61 

Che  fa  natura,  e  quel  ch'  e  poi  aggiunto, 
Di  che  la  fede  spezial  si  cria: 

Onde  nel  cerchio  minore,  ov'  e  il  punto  64 

Del!'  universo,  in  su  che  Dite  siede, 
Qualunque  trade  in  eterno  c  consunto.' 

Ed  io:   'Maestro,  assai  chiaro  procedc  67 

La  tua  ragione,  ed  assai  ben  distingue 
Questo  baratro  e  il  popol  che  il  possiede. 

Ma  dimmi:   Quei  della  palude  pingue,  70 

Che  mena  il  vento,  e  che  batte  la  pioggia, 
E  che  s'  incontran  con  si  aspre  lingue, 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  151 

61       p 
64       o 

67  E 

70  MA 

Read:  poema 

POEMA  is  signed,  line  67,  by  the  acrostic  words:  ed  10. 

The  first  time  that  the  words  Ed  io  appear  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  in  Inf.  i.  130: 

Ed  io  a  lui:  Poeta,  io  ti  richieggio. 
This  Hne  Hes  within  the  last  four  terzine  of  the  canto: 

In  tutte  parti  impera,  e  quivi  regge,  127 

Quivi  e  la  sua  citta  e  1'  alto  seggio: 

O  felice  colui  eui  ivi  elegge!' 
Ed  io  a  lui:   Toeta,  io  ti  richieggio  130 

Per  quello  Dio  che  tu  non  conoscesti, 

Acciocch'  io  fugga  questo  male  e  peggio 
Che  tu  mi  meni  la  dov'  or  dicesti,  133 

Si  ch'  io  vegga  la  porta  di  san  Pietro, 

E  color  cui  tu  fai  cotanto  mesti.' 
Allor  si  mosse,  ed  io  li  tenni  retro.  136 

On  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  we  have  already 
seen,  pages  40-1,  the  acrostic:  e  indica.  In  showing  this 
acrostic  I  said  that  I  was  obliged  to  defer  showing  the  full 
cryptographic  content  of  the  passage  to  a  later  chapter. 
Let  us  consider  now,  therefore,  the  following  marginal  letters 
of  the  lines  immediately  before  and  after  the  Ed  io: 


127 

I 

128 

QU 

129 

0 

130 

ED  10 

131 

P 

132 

A 

133 

C 

Read:  capo  qui:    ed  io 

This  acrostic  capo  recalls  the  capo  in  the  acrostic  that 


152      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

appears  in  the  passage  that  contains  the  words  La  forma  uni- 
versal. Par.  xxxiii.  91,  in  connection  with  the  words  io  vidi. 
Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  lines: 


127 

IN    T 

128 

QU 

129 

0 

130 

ED 

131 

PE 

132 

A 

133 

C 

134 

s 

135 

E    C 

136 

A 

Read: 

CAPO 

ESCE    QUI. 

DANTE 

Da,  as  the  initials  of  Dante  Aldighiero,  di,  as  the  spelled 
form  of  the  initial  d  of  Dante,  and  ed,  as  an  abbreviation  of 
ED  10,  seem  to  be  frequently  used  as  symbols  of  Dante's 
name.  This  use  of  ed  is  determined  in  part,  I  think,  by  the 
fact  that  ed  is  a  copulative  conjunction.  It  expresses  thus, 
as  a  copulative,  the  phallic  symbolism  of  Dante  himself  in 
the  theme  of  rebirth  as  developed  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 

The  following  passage.  Inf.  xxv.  28-36,  consists  of  three 
terzine: 

Non  va  co'  suoi  fratei  per  un  cammino,  28 

Per  lo  furar  che  frodolente  fece 
Del  grande  armento  ch'  egli  ebbe  a  vicino: 

Onde  cessar  le  sue  opere  biece  31 

Sotto  la  mazza  d'  Ercole,  che  forse 
Gliene  die  cento,  e  non  senti  le  diece.' 

Mentre  che  si  parlava,  ed  ei  trascorse,  34 

E  tre  spirit!  venner  sotto  noi, 
De'  quai  ne  io  ne  il  Duca  mio  s'  accorse, 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  three  terzine: 

28  N 

31        O 

34         ME 

Read:  nome 


THE    UNIVERSAL    FORM  153 

The  initials  of  the  last  two  lines  of  the  passage  are: 

35  E 

36  D 

Read:  ed 

So  that  the  complete  reading  on  the  passage  is:  nome  ed. 

Following  are  the  last  ten  lines  of  Par.  iii: 

Cosi  parlommi,  e  poi  comincio:  Ave,  121 

Maria,  cantando;  e  cantando  vanio, 

Come  per  acqua  cupa  cosa  grave. 
La  vista  mia,  che  tanto  la  seguio  124 

Quanto  possibil  fu,  poi  che  la  perse, 

Volsesi  al  segno  di  maggior  disio, 
Ed  a  Beatrice  tutta  si  converse;  127 

Ma  quella  folgoro  nello  mio  sguardo 

Si  che  da  prima  il  viso  non  sofferse; 
E  cio  mi  fece  a  domandar  piu  tardo.  130 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


121 

c 

124 

LA 

127 

ED 

130 

e 

Read:  cela 

ED 

The  following  passage,  Par.  vii.  76-87,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Di  tutte  queste  cose  s'  avvantaggia  76 

L'  umana  creatura,  e  s'  una  manca, 

Di  sua  nobilita  convien  che  caggia. 
Solo  il  peccato  e  quel  che  la  disfranca,  79 

E  falla  dissimile  al  Sommo  Bene, 

Perche  del  lume  suo  poco  s'  imbianca; 
Ed  in  sua  dignita  mai  non  riviene,  82 

Se  non  riempie  dove  colpa  vota. 

Contra  mal  dilettar  con  giuste  pene. 
Vostra  natura,  quando  pecco  tola  85 

Nel  seme  suo,  da  queste  dignitadi, 

Come  da  Paradiso,  fu  remota; 


154      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  four  terzine: 

76       D 

79  SOL 

82        E 
85       vo 

Read:  solvo  ed 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxvi.  13-24,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

lo  dissi:  'Al  suo  piacere  e  tosto  e  tardo  13 

Vegna  rimedio  agli  occhi  che  fur  porte, 

Quand'  ella  entro  col  foco  ond'  io  sempr'  ardo. 
Lo  ben  che  fa  contenta  questa  corte,  16 

Alfa  ed  O  e  di  quanta  scrittura 

Mi  legge  amore,  o  lievemente  o  forte.' 
Quella  medesma  voce,  che  paura  19 

Tolta  m'  avea  del  subito  abbarbaglio, 

Di  ragionare  ancor  mi  mise  in  cura; 
E  disse:  'Certo  a  piu  angusto  vaglio  22 

Ti  conviene  schiarar;  dicer  convienti 

Chi  drizzo  1'  arco  tuo  a  tal  bersaglio.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 


13 

I 

16 

LO 

19 

QU 

22 

ED 

Read:  loqui  ed 

There  is  a  hint  in  the  words  scrittura  mi  legge,  17-18.  For 
the  reading  of  Alfa  ed  0,  see  page  444. 

The  following  passage,  Inj.  xxxiv.  11 8-1 29,  consists  of 
four  terzine: 

Qui  e  da  man  quando  di  la  e  sera:  118 

E  questi  che  ne  fe'  scala  col  pelo, 
Fitto  e  ancora,  si  come  prim'  era. 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  155 

Da  questa  parte  cadde  giu  dal  cielo:  121 

E  la  terra  che  pria  di  qua  si  sporse 
Per  paura  di  lui  fe'  del  mar  velo, 

E  venne  all'  emisperio  nostro;  e  forse  124 

Per  fuggir  lui  lascio  qui  il  loco  voto 
Quella  che  appar  di  qua,  e  su  ricorse.' 

Loco  e  laggiii  da  Belzebu  remoto  127 

Tanto,  quanto  la  tomba  si  distende, 
Che  non  per  vista,  ma  per  suono  e  noto 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  four  terzine: 

118  QUI 

121  D 

124  E 

127  LO 

Read:  loqui  ed 

Note  the  suggestive  velo  in  line  123. 


DIL 

I  mentioned  in  Chapter  I  the  curious  way  in  which  the 
letters  d,  i,  and  l  appear  in  Par.  xviii,  apart  from  their  con- 
text, as  the  first  letters  in  the  sentence:  Diligite  iustitiam  qui 
iudicatis  terram.  These  letters,  dil,  form  another  of  the 
cryptographic  guises  of  Dante. 

D,  in  Roman  notation  =  500 
I,  in  Roman  notation  =  i 
L,  in  Roman  notation     =      50 

If  we  disregard  the  zeroes,  these  numbers  give  the  integers 
5,  I,  and  5,  the  integers  of  the  cryptic  dxv,  and  may  accord- 
ingly be  transmuted  into  the  name  of  dante. 

This  interpretation  of  dil  as  a  cryptographic  device  for 
DANTE  is  confirmed  by  other  cryptographic  devices  to  be 
found  in  the  same  passage.  The  passage  in  which  Dante 
speaks  of  seeing  the  cryptic  letters  begins,  line  70,  with  the 
significant  10  vidi,  and  continues  for  four  terzine,  as  follows: 


iS6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

lo  vidi  in  quella  giovial  facella  70 

Lo  sfavillar  dell'  amor  che  li  era, 

Segnare  agli  occhi  miei  nostra  favella. 
E  come  augelli  surti  di  riviera,  73 

Quasi  congratulando  a  lor  pasture, 

Fanno  di  se  or  tonda  or  altra  schiera, 
Si  dentro  ai  lumi  sante  creature  76 

Volitando  cantavano,  e  faciensi 

Or  D,  or  I,  or  L,  in  sue  figure. 
Prima  cantando  a  sua  nota  moviensi;  79 

Poi,  diventando  1'  un  di  questi  segni, 

Un  poco  s'  arrestavano  e  taciensi. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


70 

ID    VIDI 

73 

E    COM 

76 

SI 

79 

PR 

COMPRESI    "10 

VIDI 

Read: 

Thus  in  connection  with  the  cryptic  letters  d,  i,  and  l, 
mentioned  in  the  text,  Dante  says  in  the  acrostic:  "I  under- 
stood 10  VIDI."  In  other  words,  he  says  in  the  acrostic  that  he 
understood  10  vidi,  that  is,  dante,  when  he  saw  dil. 

The  four  terzine  that  follow  the  passage  just  quoted  con- 
tain further  cryptographic  proof  that  dil  is  a  guise  of  dante. 
These  four  terzine.  Par.  xviii.  82-93,  which  include  an 
invocation  to  Pegasus,  read  as  follows: 

O  diva  Pegasea,  che  gl'  ingegni  82 

Fai  gloriosi,  e  rendili  longevi, 

Ed  essi  teco  le  cittadi  e  i  regni, 
Illustrami  di  te,  si  ch'  io  rilevi  85 

Le  lor  figure  com'  io  1'  ho  concette; 

Paia  tua  possa  in  questi  versi  brevi. 
Mostrarsi  dunque  in  cinque  volte  sette     88 

Vocali  e  consonanti;  ed  io  notai 

Le  parti  si  come  mi  parver  dette. 
Diligite  iustitiam,  primai  91 

Fur  verbo  e  nome  di  tutto  il  dipinto; 

Qui  iudicatis  terram,  fur  sezzai. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  157 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 

82       o 
85       I 

88         MOSTR 
91  D 

Read:  dimostro 

Notice  that  the  first  line  of  the  passage  on  which  this 
acrostic  is  found  begins  with  the  letters:  o  div.  These  letters 
are  in  themselves  the  "universal  form":  10  v-d.  Notice  also 
the  word  ingegni^  a  word  which  Dante  frequently  uses  in 
connection  with  cryptographic  devices. 

The  acrostic  dimostro  may  refer  to  what  Dante  says,  line 
88,  of  the  whole  sentence  of  which  dil  is  the  beginning.  This 
sentence,  he  tells  us,  is  composed  of  vowels  and  consonants 
"five  times  seven."  Now  what  can  be  the  reason  for  his  thus 
indicating  the  exact  number  of  the  letters? 

I  suggest  that  the  reason  is  simply  that  the  number  offers 
another  means  of  identifying  himself  with  what  he  describes 
himself  as  seeing.  "Five  times  seven"  is  thirty-five,  the  age, 
as  is  well  known,  which  Dante  ascribes  to  himself  at  the  time 
of  his  "vision."  His  vision  came  to  him,  as  he  tells  us  in  Inf. 
i,  nel  mezzo  del  cammin  di  nostra  vita.  In  the  Convivio  he 
elaborates  the  psalmist's  idea  of  the  length  of  the  life  of  man 
as  seventy  years,  the  mezzo  of  which  is  thirty-five.  This  age, 
morever,  is  really  an  approximation  to  the  age  of  Christ,  ac- 
cording to  medieval  computations,  at  the  time  of  his  cruci- 
fixion. Thus  Christ  and  Dante  may  be  considered  to  have 
descended  into  Hell  at  the  same  age,  a  coincidence  which  I 
believe  Dante  intended  as  a  further  indication  of  his  iden- 
tity with  Christ.  At  any  rate,  the  "thirty-five"  of  the  letters 
in  the  sentence  beginning  with  dil  further  identifies  the  dil 
as  a  guise  of  Dante. 

The  cryptic  play  on  the  letters  of  this  sentence  of  thirty- 
five  letters  is  continued  in  what  Dante  says  about  the  letter 
M  with  which  the  sentence  ends.  This  m  is  metamorphosed, 
first,  into  a  fleur-de-lys  and  then  into  an  eagle  which  utters 


158      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

some  of  the  most  cryptic  sentences  of  the  whole  Divina 
Commedia.  I  shall  have  to  postpone  to  the  chapter  on  the 
Symbolic  Guises  of  Dante  the  explanation  of  the  meaning  of 
this  M  and  of  the  eagle  into  which  it  changes. 

Another  proof  that  dil  is  indeed  a  cryptographic  guise 
of  Dante  is  contained  in  the  passage  itself  in  which  the  cryptic 
letters  are  mentioned.  This  proof  consists  of  various  interior 
sequences  spelling  the  name  of  Dante.  Consider  the  following: 

71  lo  sfavillar  dell 'amor  che  li  erA 

72  segnare  agli   occhi  miei  nosTra  favella 

73  e   come  augelli   surti  Di   riviera 

74  quasi   congratulaNdo  a  lor  pasture 

75  fanno  di  sE  or  tonda  or  altra  schiera 

Read  a  of  era,  71;  t  of  nostra,  72;  d  of  ^/,  73;  second  n  of 
congratulando,  74;  e  of  j^,  75:  dante. 

This  sequence  is  not  quite  regular  by  count,  but  it  is 
straight  to  the  eye,  and  it  is  confirmed  by  the  sense  of  the 
words  on  which  it  Qwds,  fanno  di  se.  The  lights  of  the  spirits 
"make  of  themselves,"  according  to  the  text,  dil;  they  like- 
wise make  dante. 

The  next  six  lines  are: 

76  si  dentro  ai  lumi  sanTE  creature 

77  volitando  cANtavano  e  faciensi 

78  or  D  or  i  or  1  in  sue  figure 

79  prima  cAntando  a  sua  nota  moviensi 

80  poi  diventaNdo  I'un  di  questi  segni 

81  un  poco  s'arresTavano  e  taciensi 

Read  te  of  sante,  76;  first  an  of  cantavano,  77;  d,  78: 

DANTE. 

Read  the  same  d,  78;  first  a  of  cantando,  79;  second  n  of 
diventando,  80;  t  of  arrestavano,  81:  dant.  This  sequence 
starts  on  the  fourth  space  of  line  78,  and  the  other  letters  are 
on  the  eighth,  twelfth  and  sixteenth  spaces  of  the  respective 
lines. 

A  few  lines  below  is  another  sequence: 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  159 

86  IE  lor  figure  com'io  I'ho  concette 

87  paia  Tua  possa  in  questi  versi  brevi 

88  mostrarsi  Dunque  in  cinque  volte  sette 

89  vocali  e  consoNAnti  ed  io  notai 

Read  e  of  /<?,  86;  t  of  tua^  87;  d  of  dunque^  88;  na  of 
consonantly  89:  dante. 

The  four  sequences  in  the  passage  treating  of  the  cryptic 
letters  confirm  the  identification  of  dil  as  a  guise  of  Dante 
and  as  a  variation  of  t\vQ.  forma  universal. 

The  meaning  which  I  have  thus  estabHshed  for  dil  will 
prove  illuminating  in  the  interpretation  of  the  obscure 
passage  in  the  opening  of  Par.  vii,  where  Dante  refers  to 
Beatrice  as  be  and  ice.  In  this  passage  he  uses  three  times 
the  form  dille.  The  repetition,  as  I  shall  show,  page  350,  is 
intended  to  convey  a  reference  to  the  cryptic  meaning  of  dil 
as  Dante. 


VEL 

One  of  the  enigmatic  passages  to  which   I   referred  in 
Chapter  I  is  Par.  xix.  115-141,  which  reads  as  follows: 

Li  si  vedra  tra  1'  opere  d'  Alberto  115 

Quella  che  tosto  movera  la  penna, 

Per  che  il  regno  di  Praga  fia  deserto. 
Li  si  vedra  il  duol  che  sopra  Senna  118 

Induce,  falseggiando  la  moneta, 

Quel  che  morra  di  colpo  di  cotenna. 
Li  si  vedra  la  superbia  ch'  asseta,  121 

Che  fa  lo  Scotto  e  1'  Inghilese  folle, 

Si  che  non  puo  soffrir  dentro  a  sua  meta. 
Vedrassi  la  lussuria  e  il  viver  molle  124 

Di  quel  di  Spagna,  e  di  quel  di  Buemme, 

Che  mai  valor  non  conobbe,  ne  voile. 
Vedrassi  al  Ciotto  di  Jerusalemme  127 

Segnata  con  un  I  la  sua  bontate, 

Quando  il  contrario  segnera  un  emme. 
Vedrassi  1'  avarizia  e  la  viltate  130 

Di  quel  che  guarda  1'  isola  del  foco, 

Dove  Anchise  fini  la  lunga  etate; 


i6o      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Ed  a  dare  ad  intender  quanto  e  poco,  133 

La  sua  scrittura  fieri  lettere  mozze, 

Che  noteranno  molto  in  parvo  loco. 
E  parranno  a  ciascun  1'  opere  sozze  136 

Del  barba  e  del  fratel,  che  tanto  egregia 

Nazione,  e  due  corone  han  fatte  bozze. 
E  quel  di  Portogallo,  e  di  Norvegia  139 

Li  si  conosceranno,  e  quel  di  Rascia 

Che  mal  ha  visto  il  conio  di  Vinegia. 

Of  the  nine  terzine  of  this  passage  the  first  three  begin  with 
the  letter  l,  the  second  three  with  the  letter  v,  and  the  third 
three  with  the  letter  e.  And  the  same  letters  are  repeated  in 
the  ninth  terzina  in  a  curious  way,  the  first  line  beginning 
with  E,  the  second  with  l,  and  the  third  showing  a  v,  not  as 
the  initial  of  the  line,  but  as  the  initial  of  the  last  word  of  the 
line.  The  repeated  initials  of  the  terzine  make,  therefore,  the 
following  figure: 

L 
L 
L 
V 
V 
V 
E 
E 
E 

The  last  terzina  repeats  these  letters  in  the  following  way: 

E 
L 


This  artificial  symmetry  recalls  that  of  the  passage  in  Purg. 
xii.  25-63,  in  which  the  acrostic  vom  has  long  been  recognized. 
I  know  of  no  recognition,  however,  that  the  initials  of  the 
terzine  of  the  present  passage,  rearranged,  make  an  acrostic 
VEL,  or  "veil." 

This  VEL  is  another  of  the  cryptographic  guises  of  dante. 
It  may  be  transmuted  either  into  the  "universal  form"  of  his 


THE   UNIVERSAL    FORM  i6i 

name  or  into  his  name  itself  by  the  method  already  described 
of  transmuting  the  letters  involved  into  numerical  equiva- 
lents that  have  for  their  integers,  the  zeroes  being  dis- 
regarded, a  five,  a  one,  and  a  five.  The  transmutation  of  vel 
into  these  integers  is  made  as  follows: 

V,  in  Roman  notation  =      5 

E,  as  fifth  letter  of  the  alphabet     =      5 
L,  as  tenth  letter  of  the  alphabet   =    10 

L  is  the  tenth  letter  of  the  Italian  alphabet,  as  the  Italian 
alphabet  has  neither  j  nor  k. 

The  determinants  for  adopting  vel  as  one  of  the  crypto- 
graphic guises  of  the  name  dante  cannot  have  been  merely 
the  possibility  of  this  numerical  correspondence.  The  sense  of 
the  word  itself  is  profoundly  significant  of  the  character 
which  Dante  ascribes  to  himself  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  As 
man  he  is  the  veil  of  the  divine  nature  which  the  human 
nature  covers  over.  I  conjecture,  moreover,  that  Dante  was 
not  insensible  to  the  punning  value  of  the  word  vel,  which  in 
Latin  means  either  and  or.  In  his  identification  of  himself  with 
the  divine  nature  Dante  is  either  God  or  man.  That  Dante 
had  some  cryptic  idea  connected  with  vel  appears,  indeed, 
in  the  use  which  he  constantly  makes  of  the  word  in  the 
manifest  meaning  of  the  poem.  In  Inf.  ix.  62  and  63,  he  says: 

Mirate  la  dottrlna  che  s'asconde 
Sotto  il  velame  degli  versi  strani! 

Scattered  throughout  the  poem  are  many  similar  references 
to  the  veil  as  a  hiding  place  of  something  cryptic. 

The  passage,  Par.  xix.  1 15-141,  in  which  I  have  shown  the 
acrostic  vel,  contains  one  of  the  clearest  references  in  the 
whole  Divina  Commedia  to  the  devices  of  cryptography. 
This  reference,  on  which  I  have  already  commented,  appears 
in  lines  133-135: 

Ed  a  dare  ad  intender  quanto  e  poco, 
La  sua  scrittura  fien  lettere  mozze, 
Che  noteranno  molto  in  parvo  loco. 

The  scrittura^  as  I  explained  in  Chapter  I,  is  in  "letters  cut 


i62      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

off"  from  the  context,  exactly  as  in  acrostics  and  interior 
sequences,  and  indeed,  in  many  other  methods  of  crypto- 
graphy. 

That  the  acrostic  vel  that  is  found  in  this  passage  is  indeed 
a  cryptographic  guise  of  dante,  transmutable  from  the 
universal  form  lo  vidi,  is  proved  by  the  various  crypto- 
graphic signatures  of  dante  which  the  passage  contains. 

Note  first  the  following  marginal  letters  of  lines  130-133: 


130 

VE 

131 

DI 

132 

D 

^33 

E 

VEDI 

D.  . 

Read; 

Notice,  moreover,  line  133,  the  sounds  that  suggest  vaguely 
the  name  of  Dante.  This  sort  of  suggestion  Dante  frequently 
employs  as  a  means  of  calling  attention  to  a  more  precise 
way  by  which  his  name  is  hidden  in  the  same  passage. 

In  line  132,  the  line  following  the  acrostic  vedi  just  shown, 
the  name  dante  is  spelled  by  the  "string"  cipher  device 
which  we  have  seen  in  Chapter  III,  p.  71 .  I  have  capitalized 
the  letters  of  the  signature,  thus: 

132  Dove  ANchise  fini  la  lunga  eTatE 

In  this  passage,  as  if  confirming  the  cryptographic  hint  in 
lettere  mozze^  is  also  an  interior  sequence,  which  may  be 
shown  thus: 

132  dove  anchisE  fini   la  lunga  etate 

133  ed  a  dare   aD  intender  quanto  e  poco 

134  la  sua  scriTtura   fien  lettere  mozze 

135  che  noteranNo  molto  in  parvo  loco 

136  e  parranno  A  ciascun  I'opere  sozze 

Read  in  a  vertical  line  from  e  o(  anc/iise,  132;  d  oi  ad^  133, 
first  T  of  scritturUy  134;  third  n  of  noteranno^  135;  a,  136: 
dante.  This  reading  begins  on  the  line  which  contains  the 
string  cipher  and  runs  through  the  passage  which  we  have 
already  noticed  as  a  hint  of  a  cryptographic  device.  Follow- 


THE   UNIVERSAL   FORM  163 

ing  the  n  of  this  signature,  135,  are  the  letters  o  mol,  which 
spell  backward:  l'omo,  "the  man." 

But  the  most  surprising  signature  in  the  passage  containing 
the  acrostic  vel  is  a  double  signature  in  the  form  of  a  cross. 
And  this  double  signature  is  surprising  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  most  precisely  indicated  by  the  literal  meaning  of 
the  text.  It  will  clarify  one  of  the  obscure  passages  of  the 
Divina  Commedia. 

The  double  signature  in  the  form  of  a  cross  to  which  I  refer 
appears  in  connection  with  the  ciotio  di  Jerusalemme.  This 
"cripple  of  Jerusalem"  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been 
Charles  II,  king  of  Naples  and  titular  king  of  Jerusalem.  It  is 
said  of  him  here,  lines  127-128,  that  his  goodness  shall  be 
signed  with  an  i,  while  an  m  shall  sign  the  contrary.  These 
obscure  words  are  supposed  to  mean  that  his  virtues  shall  be 
signed,  or  marked,  with  a  one,  the  i  being  taken  for  one  in  the 
Roman  notation;  and  that  a  thousand,  the  m  being  taken  for 
a  thousand  in  the  Roman  notation,  shall  sign,  or  mark,  his 
vices.  In  other  words,  Dante  is  supposed  to  be  saying  that 
this  king  had  one  virtue  and  a  thousand  vices. 

Long  before  I  discovered  the  cryptographic  character  of 
the  Divina  Commedia^  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is 
not  Charles  II  of  Naples,  but  the  Christ-like,  or  Christ- 
likened,  Dante  himself  who  is  here  indicated.  My  conclusion 
is  verified  by  the  following  interior  sequences: 

124  vedrassi   la  lussuria  e  il  viver  mollE 

125  Di  quel  di  spagna  e  di  quel  Di  buemme 

126  che  mai  vAlor  non  coNobbe  ne  voile 

127  vedrassi  al  cIOtTo  di  jerusalemme 

128  segnaTA  con  un  i   la  sua  boNtate 

129  quando  il  contrario  segnera  un  emmE 

Read  e  oimolle^  124;  d  of  ^/,  125;  n  oi  conobbe^  126;  10  of 
ciotto^  127;  TA  oi  segnatUy  128:  10  dante. 

Read  d,  initial  of  125;  a  of  valor ,  126;  second  t  of  ciotto^ 
127;  N  oibontate^  128;  second  e  oi  emme^  129:  dante. 

Since  this  signature  terminates  on  emme^  an  m  signs  it,  just 
as  the  I  in  lo  signs  dante  in  the  other  sequence.  Thus  Dante, 


i64      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

like  the  ciotto,  is  signed  with  an  i  and  an  m;  these  letters 
spell  MI.  Both  signatures  run  through  ciotto,  the  center  of 
the  cross  which  they  form. 

The  letters  i  and  m  with  which  dante  is  thus  signed  and 
which  spell  mi  may  have  a  further  cryptic  meaning,  indi- 
cating the  dual  character  of  Dante  as  both  human  and 
divine.  The  m  is,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  symbol  of 
man;  and  the  i,  both  as  the  initial  of  lesu  and  also  as  a  one 
and  therefore  as  an  a  (see  p.  443)  is  the  symbol  of  Christ. 

The  meaning  of  the  passage  now  becomes  clear.  The 
reference  to  Charles  of  Naples  may  indeed  have  been  in- 
tended by  Dante  in  the  sense  that  the  commentators  say; 
but  if  so,  only  as  the  veriest  screen  or,  trompe  d'ceily  for  his 
deeper  meaning.  The  real  ciotto  of  Jerusalem  was  Christ, 
who  was  crucified  there.  It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  in  the 
present  cryptographic  device  Dante  is  identifying  himself 
with  Christ  by  putting  himself  on  the  cross  of  Christ. 

In  connection  with  the  transmutability  of  vel  into  the 
universal  form  of  dante:  10  vidi,  by  way  of  the  figures  5, 
I,  and  5,  the  foregoing  signatures  that  appear  in  the  passage 
that  shows  the  acrostic  vel  are  sufficient  proof,  I  think,  that 
VEL  is  a  cryptographic  guise  of  dante. 


Chapter  VI 
SYMBOLIC  GUISES 


Chapter  VI 
SYMBOLIC  GUISES 


^T^HE  cryptographic  transmutations  of  Dante  as  a  name 
-*-  are  not  the  only  guises  in  which  he  hides  himself  in  the 
Divina  Commedia;   he  hides  himself  also,  as  I  shall  show  in 
the  present  chapter,  in  various  symbolic  guises. 


PHCENIX 

The  first  of  the  symbolic  guises  of  Dante  to  which  I  wish 
to  call  attention  is  the  Phoenix,  mentioned  in  Inf.  xxiv. 
This  mythical  bird  was  supposed  to  burn  itself,  when  it 
reached  its  five  hundredth  year,  on  a  pyre  of  incense,  and  to 
rise  again  from  its  own  ashes  in  the  shape  of  a  small  worm, 
which  on  the  third  day  thereafter  developed  into  the  full 
grown  bird.  There  was  only  one  Phoenix,  and  its  rebirth 
was  accomplished  without  intercourse  with  a  mate. 

The  Phoenix,  as  an  example  of  rebirth,  was  widely 
adopted  in  the  middle  ages  as  a  symbol  of  Christ.  The  de- 
tail of  its  rebirth  as  a  worm  that  developed  into  the  full 
grown  bird  in  three  days  corresponds,  obviously,  to  the  story 
of  the  rebirth  of  Christ,  who  after  the  crucifixion  descended 
into  Hell  and  remained  there  three  days  before  ascending 
into  Heaven. 

In  the  passage  in  which  Dante  mentions  the  Phoenix  he 
compares  to  its  transformations  the  transformations  of  a 
robber  who  is  burned  to  ashes  before  his  eyes  and  then  re- 
turns to  his  human  shape.  The  *f5usi^e,  which  includes 
seven  terzine,  reads  as  follows: 

[167] 


i68       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Tra  questa  cruda  e  tristissima  copia  91 

Correvan  genti  nude  e  spaventate, 

Senza  sperar  pertugio  o  elitropia. 
Con  serpi  le  man  dietro  avean  legate:  94 

Quelle  ficcavan  per  le  ren  la  coda 

E  il  capo,  ed  eran  dinanzi  aggroppate. 
Ed  ecco  ad  un,  ch'  era  da  nostra  proda,  97 

S'  avventd  un  serpente,  che  il  trafisse 

L^  dove  il  collo  alle  spalle  s'  annoda. 
N^  O  si  tosto  mai,  n^  I  si  scrisse,  100 

Com'  ei  s*  accese  ed  arse,  e  cener  tutto 

Convenne  che  cascando  divenisse: 
E  poi  che  fu  a  terra  si  distrutto,  103 

La  polver  si  raccolse  per  s6  stessa, 

E  in  quel  medesmo  ritorno  di  butto: 
Cosi  per  li  gran  savi  si  confessa,  105 

Che  la  Fenice  more  e  poi  rinasce, 

Quando  al  cinquecentesimo  anno  appressa. 
Erba  ne  biado  in  sua  vita  non  pasce,  109 

Ma  sol  d'  incenso  lagrime  ed  amomo; 

E  nardo  e  mirra  son  1'  ultime  fasce. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  these  seven  terzine: 


91 

94 
97 

T 

c 

ED  ECCO  AD 

100 

N 

103 
106 

E 
CO 

109 

E 

Read:  ecco 

ed!   ECCO  DANTE ! 

The  ED  of  this  acrostic  is,  as  we  have  already  seen,  a 
cryptographic  device  for  dante.  So  that  the  whole  acrostic 
reads  in  effect:  "Lo,  Dante!  Lo,  Dante!"  The  fact  that 
Dante  is  thus  named  twice  is  appropriate  to  the  rebirth  sym- 
bolism of  the  passage.  His  name  appears  in  two  forms  as 
the  robber  appears  in  two  forms,  and  as  the  Phoenix  appears 
in  two  forms.  The  two  forms  of  the  name,  ed  and  dante, 
suggest  the  appearances  of  Dante  before  and  after  the  sym- 
bolized rebirth. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  169 

This  acrostic  is  not  the  only  cryptographic  device  in  the 
passage  which  identifies  the  Phoenix  with  Dante.  Line  100 
reads: 

Ne  O  si  tosto  mai,  ne  I  si  scrisse. 

The  mention  of  the  letters  o  and  i  in  this  line  is  generally 
considered  as  merely  the  means  of  comparing  the  speed  of 
the  described  transformations  with  the  speed  with  which 
these  particular  letters  may  be  written.  But  Dante  is  not 
here  dealing  with  the  merely  obvious;  he  is  using  the  letters 
of  the  comparison  to  spell,  backwards,  10  or  "i",  thus  again 
indicating  that  he  is  speaking  of  himself  in  speaking  of  the 
robber  and  the  Phoenix.  The  use  of  the  o  and  the  i  in  this 
passage  to  spell  10  is  analogous  to  the  use,  in  the  passage 
describing  the  ciotto,  of  i  and  m  to  spell  mi  (see  pp.  163-4). 

This  cryptographic  use  of  the  letters  o  and  i  appears  on 
line  100,  and  100  in  its  first  two  digits,  gives  the  same  read- 
ing: 10. 

The  number  ten,  which  thus  appears  twice  in  the  same 
line,  was  considered  in  the  number  symbolism  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  I  believe,  as  appropriate  to  Christ,  both  because  ten, 
in  its  form  in  the  Roman  notation,  is  a  cross,  and  also 
because  it  is  the  number  which  follows  nine,  nine  being, 
as  three  times  three,  the  symbol  of  the  operation  of  Trinity 
upon  itself.  The  ten  then,  as  the  number  following  the 
nine  of  the  operation  of  Trinity  upon  itself,  was  taken  as 
the  symbol  of  the  humanly  incarnated  son  of  the  Trinity, 
who  proceeded  from  this  operation,  as  in  rebirth.  For  the 
development  in  the  Vita  Nuova  of  this  idea  of  the  Trinity  as 
multiplied  by  itself,  see  pages  34I-3. 

There  is  another  cryptographic  use  of  the  letters  o  and  i 
as  a  ten.  In  line  108  the  age  at  about  which  the  Phoenix  is 
reborn  is  designated  as  Jive  hundred.  There  thus  appear 
here  in  connection  with  the  Phoenix  the  five  hundred  and 
the  ten  of  the  cryptic  number  of  the  dxv,  a  five  hundred,  a 
ten,  and  a  five.  In  the  light  of  this  coincidence  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  that  there  is  also  a  five  concealed  in  the 
present  passage  dealing  with  the  robber  and  the  Phoenix. 


I70      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

It  is  said,  line  94,  of  the  shades  whom  Dante  is  viewing  that 

Con  serpi  le  man  dietro  avean  legate. 

The  robber  who  is  here  described  as  undergoing  the  remark- 
able transformation  from  human  shape  to  ashes  and  from 
ashes  to  human  shape  has,  therefore,  like  his  companions, 
his  hands  tied  behind  his  back.  With  his  hands  thus  tied, 
his  arms,  perforce,  make  the  shape  of  a  v,  or  five.  There 
thus  appears  in  this  passage  the  complete  cryptic  number, 
a  five  hundred,  a  ten,  and  a  five.  This  number  identifies 
the  Phoenix  with  the  prophesied  dvx,  and  so  together  with  the 
acrostic:  ecco  ed!     ecco  dante!,  with  Dante  himself. 

There  are  several  hints  in  the  passage  of  a  cryptographic 
character.     The  initials  of  the  final  terzina  are: 

109       E 
no       M 

III  E 

Read:  e  me 

The  word  mariy  line  94,  may  be  used  with  a  double  sense 
of  "hand",  or  signature.  The  word  copia,  line  91,  for 
"crowd"  suggests  the  sense  of  a  "copy,"  a  copy,  perhaps,  of 
the  cryptic  number  of  the  dvx  and  of  dante. 

The  fact  that  the  person  described  in  this  passage  as  being 
transformed  like  a  Phoenix  is  a  robber  is  significant  of  the 
deeper  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  In  Greek  myth 
Prometheus  is  a  thief  of  the  divine  fire.  And  in  the  Chris- 
tian story  Christ  is  crucified  between  thieves,  a  companion- 
ship intended  to  indicate  that  he  shares,  in  a  Promethean 
way,  the  character  of  his  guilty  companions.  The  thejt  im- 
plied in  numerous  myths  of  rebirth  is  the  theft  of  the  power 
to  give  new  life  to  oneself — the  power,  that  is,  of  the  father 
who  gives  life  to  the  son  in  the  first  place.  This  theft,  or 
usurpation,  is  an  expression  of  the  act  of  incest  which  ap- 
pears, disguised  or  undisguised,  in  all  symbols  of  rebirth. 
The  Phoenix  is  associated  with  the  thief,  as  Christ,  on  the 
cross,  is  associated  with  the  thieves.  Dante  is  here  symbol- 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  171 

izing  his  own  rebirth  in  the  terms  in  which  the  rebirth  of 
Christ  is  symboHzed.  He  is  here  once  more  identifying  him- 
self with  Christ. 

Dante  associates  himself  with  the  Phoenix  in  his  letter  to 
the  Italian  cardinals,*  when  he  says:  "But,  O  Fathers,  be- 
lieve me  not  the  phoenix  of  the  universe,  for  all  murmur,  or 
ponder,  or  dream  the  things  that  I  say  aloud." 


VELTRO 

The  next  of  the  symbolic  guises  of  Dante  to  be  con- 
sidered is  the  Veltro^  the  enigmatic  creature  prophesied 
by  Virgil  in  the  first  canto  of  Inferno.  He  may  well  be 
called,  to  use  the  words  of  Francis  Thompson,  "the  Hound 
of  Heaven." 

It  has  been  often  surmised,  and  often  denied,  that 
the  Veltro  represents  the  same  person  as  the  dxv,  and 
that  this  person  is  Can  Grande.  I  will  show  that  the 
Veltro.,  like  the  dxv,  represents  Dante  reborn.,  and  reborn 
like  Christ. 

The  passage  in  which  the  Veltro  is  described  begins,  signi- 
ficantly, on  the  hundredth  line  of  InJ.  i.  The  five  terzine 
beginning  with  the  hundredth  line  are: 

Molti  son  gli  animali  a  cui  s'  ammoglia,         100 

E  piu  saranno  ancora,  infin  che  il  veltro 

Verra,  che  la  fara  morir  con  doglia, 
Questi  non  cibera  terra  ne  peltro,  103 

Ma  sapienza  e  amore  e  virtute, 

E  sua  nazion  sara  tra  Feltro  e  Feltro. 
Di  queir  umile  Italia  fia  salute,  106 

Per  cui  mori  la  vergine  Cammilla, 

Eurialo,  e  Turno,  e  Niso  di  ferute: 
Questi  la  caccera  per  ogni  villa,  109 

Fin  che  1'  avra  rimessa  nello  inferno, 

La  onde  invidia  prima  dipartilla. 
Ond'  io  per  lo  tuo  me'  penso  e  discerno,         112 

Che  tu  mi  segui,  ed  io  saro  tua  guida, 

E  trarrotti  di  qui  per  loco  eterno, 

*Letter  ix,  8,  Latham's  translation. 


172       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

For  the  cryptographic  proof  that  the  Veltro  symbolizes 
Dante,  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  lines 
of  these  five  terzine: 


lOO 

MOLT 

lOI 

E  P 

I02 

VER 

103 

QUESTI  NO 

104 

MA  SA 

105 

E 

106 

DI 

107 

PER  C 

108 

E 

109 

QU 

IIO 

FI 

III 

LA  0 

I  12 

ON 

113 

C 

114 

E  TRA 

Read:  peremas  qui  poema.     ecco  dante,  quasi  veltro 

IN    FELTRO 

The  foregoing  acrostic  is  a  good  example  of  the  long  ana- 
grammatic  acrostics  which  I  will  show  and  discuss  in  detail 
in  Chapter  IX.  As  the  discussion  in  Chapter  IX  will  make 
clear,  this  long  anagrammatic  acrostic  is  identical  in  struc- 
ture with  the  short  anagrammatic  acrostics  of  which  we  have 
already  seen  a  number  of  examples;  it  differs  from  the  short 
anagrammatic  acrostics  simply  in  appearing  in  a  greater 
number  of  lines  and  containing  in  itself  a  greater  number 
of  words.  Let  me  indicate  how  strictly  the  reading  which 
I  have  deciphered  is  determined  by  the  text.  Notice  first 
how  clearly  the  veltro  appears  in  the  first  three  lines: 


100 

MOLT 

lOI 

E 

102 

VER 

ME, 

VELTRO 

Read; 

The  initials  of  the  three  lines  of  this  terzina,  by  yielding 
the  cryptic  515,  confirm  the  veltro  as  Dante;  the  m  equal- 
ing 1,000;   the  e,  as  the  fifth  letter,  5;  and  the  v,  5.     Notice 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  173 

now  how  clearly  the  feltro  appears  on  the  last  lines  of  the 
passage: 

no       F 

111  L 

112  o 

113  c 

114  E    TR 

Read,  with  the  c  unaccounted  for:  feltro. 
Equally  apparent  is  the  peremas: 


104 

MA    S 

105 

E 

106 

D 

107 

PER 

Read,  with  the  d  unaccounted  for:  peremas. 

Thus  in  the  acrostic  reading:  peremas  qui  poema.  ecco 
DANTE,  QUASI  VELTRO  IN  FELTRO,  three  important  words  are 
very  clearly  suggested  in  the  acrostic  letters;  and  the  poema 
is  suggested  by  the  letter  cluster: 

100  MO 

101  E    P 

Read:  poem 

The  DANTE  is  determined  by  the  initial  d  of  line  106  and 
by  the  fact  that  it  is  possible  to  find  the  remaining  letters 
either  in  initials  or  as  contiguous  to  the  letters  already  ac- 
counted for.  ECCO  is  determined  as  to  one  letter  by  the  initial 
c  of  line  113.  The  beginning  of  the  passage  as  a  crypto- 
graphic unit  is  indicated  by  the  acrostic  cave  on  the  passage 
immediately  preceding,  Inf.  i.  88-99  (see  p.  186). 

The  appearance  of  the  words  veltro  and  feltro  in  an 
acrostic  in  a  passage  which  contains  the  same  words  in  the 
text  is  confirmation  of  the  intentional  character  of  the  acros- 
tic. The  reading:  peremas  qui  poema,  as  will  appear  in 
Chapter  IX,  is  frequently  repeated  in  the  long  acrostics 
which  I  have  deciphered  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  This 
reading  instructs  the  reader  to  remove  the  poem — that  is, 


174      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

the  words  of  the  text  in  their  obvious  aspect — as  if  it  were  a 
veil  that  hid  the  secret  symbolism. 

Confirming  the  Veltro  as  a  symbol  of  Dante,  there  appears 
in  terzina  106-108  a  cryptographic  signature  on  the  words 
properly  capitalized,  namely,  the  word  at  the  beginning  of 
the  sentence  and  the  proper  names.  With  these  capitals  the 
terzina  appears  thus: 

Di  queir  umile  Italia  fia  salute, 
per  cui  mori  la  vergine  Cammilla, 
Eurialo,  e  Turno,  e  Niso  di  ferute. 

Consider  on  the  capitalized  words  the  following  initial 
and  contiguous  letters: 


DI 

D 

ITALIA 

ITA 

CAMMILLA 

CA 

EURIALO 

E 

TURNO 

T 

NISO 

N 

CITA    DANTE 

Read: 

By  means  of  the  capitalized  words,  therefore,  the  terzina 
cites,  or  names,  Dante. 

Now  the  Veltro  J  like  the  dxv,  is  to  be  understood  to  sym- 
bolize Dante  as  reborn  and  therefore  as  divine.  The  divine 
character  of  the  Veltro  is  indicated  by  the  words,  lines  103- 
104: 

Questi  non  ciber^  terra  n^  peltro, 
Ma  sapienza  e  amore  e  virtute. 

Sapienza  e  amore  e  virtute  represent  the  divine  Trinity,  or 
God,  as  appears  in  the  opening  lines  of  InJ.  iii,  where  the 
Trinity  is  referred  to  as  potestate^  sapienza^  and  amore.  The 
Veltro^  or  Christ-like  Dante,  derives,  therefore,  his  being 
from  God,  from  the  Trinity  from  which  the  divine  man 
Christ  derived  his  being.  The  divine  character  of  the 
Veltro  is  further  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  passage 
describing  him  suggests,  as  it  suggested  to  Benvenuto  da 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  175 

Imola,  a  passage  in  Virgil's  fourth  Eclogue,  where  Virgil  pro- 
phesies the  coming  of  a  son.  This  passage,  which  is  actu- 
ally paraphrased  by  Dante,  Purg.  xxii.  70-72,  seems  to  as- 
cribe divinity  to  the  prophesied  son,  and  it  was  commonly 
interpreted  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  a  prophecy  of  Christ.  The 
imitation  of  the  passage  by  Dante  hints  that  he  is  carrying 
over  with  Virgil's  form  something  of  the  accepted  interpreta- 
tion of  Virgil's  meaning.* 

With  the  divine  character  of  the  Veltro  thus  indicated  as 
a  son  to  come  in  the  form  of  the  reborn  Dante,  the  reason,  as 
I  believe,  becomes  clear  for  Dante's  choice  of  the  word 
Veltro  to  indicate  the  divine  guise  of  himself.  Notice,  in 
the  first  place,  that  the  word  veltro  begins  with  the  form 
VEL,  which  we  have  already  identified  with  Dante.  This 
may  be  taken  as  a  hint  that  the  entire  word  is  an  anagram 
for  the  following:  t:  velor!  velor  is  the  Latin  for  'T 
am  veiled."  The  t  may  be  understood,  as  so  often  else- 
where in  the  cryptography  of  the  Divina  Commedia,  as  the 
sign  of  the  cross  and  therefore  as  the  sign  of  the  divine  man 
Christ.  The  anagrammatic  t:  velor  may  mean,  therefore: 
"Christ:   I  am  veiled." 

Thus  understood  as  an  anagram  for  t:  velor,  Veltro 
indicates  that  Dante,  as  a  divine  nature,  is  veiled  in 
Christ.  This  interpretation  of  veltro  as  an  anagram  for 
t:  velor!  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  the  following  interior 
sequence: 

101  e  piu  saranno  ancora  infin  che  il  velTro 

102  verra  che  la  fara  morir  con  Doglia 

103  quest!  non  ciberA  Terra  ne  peltro 

104  ma  sapieNza  e  amore  e  virtute 

105  E  sua  nazion  sara  tra  feltro  e  feltro 

Read  t  of  veltro^  loi ;  d  of  doglia^  102;  a  of  cihera  and  the 
adjacent  t  oi  terra ^  103;  n  of  sapienza,  104:  e,  initial  of  105: 

T:    DANTE. 

May  not  this  reading  indicate  the  identity  of  the  cross,  or 
Christ,  and  Dante?     May  not  Dante  be  considered  here, 

*See  Edmund  Gardner,  Dante's  Ten  Heavens,  appendix. 


176      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

therefore,  as  in  the  t:  velor,  as  veiled  in  the  divine  character 
of  Christ? 

A  further  confirmation  for  my  interpretation  of  veltro 
as  an  anagram  for  t:  velor  may  be  found  in  an  acrostic  on 
the  first  lines  of  the  first  four  terzine  of /«/.  iv.  The  passage 
reads: 

Ruppemi  1'  alto  sonno  nella  testa 

Un  greve  tuono,  si  ch'  io  mi  riscossi, 

Come  persona  che  per  forza  h  desta: 
E  r  occhio  riposato  intorno  mossi,  4 

Dritto  levato,  e  fiso  riguardai 

Per  conoscer  lo  loco  dov'  io  fossi. 
Vero  e  che  in  su  la  proda  mi  trovai  7 

Delia  valle  d'  abisso  dolorosa, 

Che  tuono  accoglie  d'  infiniti  guai. 
Oscura,  profond'  era  e  nebulosa,  10 

Tanto  che,  per  ficcar  lo  viso  al  fondo, 

Io  non  vi  discerneva  alcuna  cosa. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

I  R 

4       E 
7       V 

ID  O 

Read:  vero 

This  VERO  is  a  potence,  repeating  as  it  does  the  vero, 
line  7,  of  the  text.  But  the  vero  is  only  a  partial  reading. 
Note  on  the  same  lines  the  following  marginal  letters: 


I          R 

4         EL 

7          V 

10          0 

Read: 

VELOR 

Now  this  VELOR  is  immediately  followed  on  the  second  and 
third  lines  of  the  last  terzina,  11  and  12,  by  the  initials: 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  177 


Read:  ti,  the  Italian  spelling  for  the  letter  t. 

The  VELOR  and  the  t,  coming  thus  together,  suggest  that 
they  may  be  read  together  as  t:  velor. 

The  T,  as  we  have  seen,  is  constantly  used  by  Dante  as 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  it  is  in  this  canto,  line  54,  that  the 
cross  is  alluded  to  for  the  first  time  in  Inferno.  And  in  this 
allusion  to  the  cross  Dante  is  veiled  again  by  a  cryptographic 
device.     See  pp.  loo-i. 

The  following  passage.  Inf.  xxxii.  85-96,  further  confirms 
my  interpretation  of  veltro  as  t:  velor: 

Lo  Duca  stette;  ed  io  dissi  a  colui  85 

Che  bestemmiava  duramente  ancora: 
'Qual  se'  tu,  che  cosi  rampogni  altrui?' 

'Or  tu  chi  se,'  che  vai  per  1'  Antenora  88 

Percotendo,'  rispose,  'altrui  le  gote 
Si  che,  se  fossi  vivo,  troppo  fora?' 

'Vivo  son  io,  e  caro  esser  ti  puote,'  91 

Fu  mia  risposta,  'se  domandi  fama, 
Ch*  io  metta  il  nome  tuo  tra  1'  altre  note.' 

Ed  egli  a  me:   'Del  contrario  ho  io  brama: 

Levati  quinci,  e  non  mi  dar  piu  lagna:  95 

Ch^  mal  sai  lusingar  per  questa  lama.' 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  are: 

85  L 

88  o 
91  V 
94       E 

Read:  veld 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  same 
lines : 


85          L 

88       OR 

91        V 

94       E 

Read: 

;    VELOR 

178      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

By  taking  the  t  of  ///,  which  is  contiguous  to  Or,  line  88, 
we  may  read:  t:  velor.  There  are  further  hints  of  t  in  the 
words:  caro  esser  ti  puote^  line  91,  and  in  the  words  in  lines  98 
and  99,  just  below  this  passage:  tu  ti  nomi  and  ti  rimagna. 
The  passage  is  dealing  with  the  question  of  identity,  as  ap- 
pears in  the  words:  Or  tu  chi  se\ 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xxii.  28-39,  further  confirms 
the  same  interpretation: 

Veramente  piu  volte  appaion  cose,  28 

Che  danno  a  dubitar  falsa  matera. 

Per  le  vere  ragion  che  sono  ascose. 
La  tua  domanda  tuo  creder  m'  avvera  31 

Esser  ch'  io  fossi  avaro  in  1'  altra  vita, 

Forse  per  quella  cerchia  dov'  io  era. 
Or  sappi  ch'  avarizia  fu  partita  34 

Troppo  da  me,  e  questa  dismisura 

Migliaia  di  lunari  hanno  punita. 
E  se  non  tosse  ch'  io  drizzai  mia  cura,  37 

Quand'  io  intesi  la  dove  tu  esclame, 

Crucciato  quasi  all'umana  natura: 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  are: 

28        V 

34       o 

37       E 

Read:  velo 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  same 
lines: 

28  V 

31  L 

34  OR 

37  E 

Read:  velor 

Crucciato,  the  first  word  of  line  39,  is  derived  from  the 
word  for  "cross,"  and  as  the  cross  is  a  t,  we  may  take  the 
allusion   to  the  cross  as  a  hint  to  read:    t:    velor.     The 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  179 

acrostic  corresponds  to  the  sense  of  the  passage,  which  deals 
with  the  apparent  and  the  hidden.  Note  appaion  cose,  line 
2%;  falsa  matera,  line  29;  ascose,  line  30. 

There  is  an  obvious  analogy  between  the  Veltro  and  the 
Dvx  to  which  I  wish  to  call  particular  attention,  since  it  is 
important  for  the  symbolism  of  these  personifications. 
The  coming  of  the  Veltro  is  prophesied  in  connection  with 
the  adulterous  lupa,  who  wives  with  many  animals;  the 
coming  of  the  dvx  in  connection  with  the  puttana,  who  sins 
with  the  giant.  The  presence  of  these  prostitute  types  in 
the  two  prophesies  concerning  the  Christ-like  child  to  come 
is  profoundly  significant.  Both  the  lupa  and  the  puttana 
suggest  the  type  of  "fallen  mother"  as  exemplified  in  Eve. 
So  important  for  ancient  and  medieval  symbolism  was  the 
prostitute  as  mother  that  the  harlot  Rahab  was  accepted 
as  the  ancestress  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  was  commonly  con- 
sidered as  the  symbol  of  the  church  itself.  Dante's  own 
treatment  of  Rahab,  Par.  ix.  115^.,  shows  that  he  makes 
use  of  this  symbolism  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 

Now  the  adulterous  lupa  and  the  puttana  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  the  mother  through  whom  the  prophesied  child  is 
to  be  born.  Evidence  for  this  statement  will  be  given  in 
Chapter  VIII.  At  present  I  wish  merely  to  indicate  as  briefly 
as  possible  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  prostitute  mother  in  the 
symbolism  of  ancient  myth,  early  Christianity,  and  the 
Divina  Commedia.  The  child  to  be  born  is  to  be  reborn. 
He  is  obliged,  therefore,  in  order  to  be  reborn,  to  return  to  the 
source  of  life  from  which  he  issued  in  the  first  place.  The 
source  of  life  is  the  mother,  and  the  return  of  the  child  to  the 
womb  of  the  mother  for  the  purpose  of  rebirth  must  be  by 
way  of  the  sexual  act.  There  is  thus  implied  an  act  of  incest 
in  which  the  mother,  by  participating  with  the  son,  is  con- 
stantly represented  in  ancient  myth,  religion,  and  poetry, 
as  prostituting  herself.  The  mother  becomes  the  fallen 
mother,  like  Eve;  as  the  mother  of  the  child  in  the  first 
place,  she  belongs  to  the  father  of  the  child,  but  as  the  mother 
of  the  reborn  child,  who  is  considered  as  perpetuating  his 
own  life  by  his  own  act,  she  violates  her  relation  with  the 


i8o      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

father,  and  thus  commits  her  sin.  The  sin,  for  which,  indeed, 
the  son  reproaches  her,  is  thus  none  the  less  the  supreme 
virtue  which  she  has  for  him.  This  double  nature  of  her 
act,  which  is  at  once  a  sin  and  a  virtue,  is  often  expressed 
in  representations  o(  two  mothers,  in  one  of  whom  is  the  sin, 
and  in  the  other  the  virtue,  of  her  act. 

Bearing  in  mind  this  interpretation  of  the  prostitute 
mother  of  the  divine  child,  let  us  turn  to  the  line  in  the 
passage  in  which  Dante  says  of  the  Fellro,  Inf.  i.  105: 

E  sua  nazion  sara  tra  Feltro  e  Feltro. 

There  is  an  obscurity  in  these  words  which,  though  not 
cryptographic,  shows  something  of  the  duplicity  of  the 
cryptographic  method.  The  meaning  of  this  line  has 
troubled  the  commentators,  who  have  offered  a  variety  of 
explanations.  All  the  explanations  agree  in  one  respect, 
which  is  that  the  region  Ira  Feltro  e  Feltro  is  situated  between 
two  different  places.  I  suggest,  on  the  contrary,  that 
Feltro  and  Feltro  are  one  and  the  same.  According  to  this 
interpretation  that  the  two  Feltros  are  really  one,  Dante's 
expression:  sua  nazion  sara  tra  Feltro  e  Feltro,  might  be 
paralleled  by  some  such  expression  as  this:  "The  spiritual 
domain  of  the  Pope  shall  be  between  Rome  and  Rome!" 

To  a  devout  Roman  Catholic  this  sentence  would  express 
his  belief  that  the  spiritual  domain  of  the  Pope  shall  include 
the  whole  earth.  The  region  between  Rome  and  Rome  is, 
in  other  words,  the  entire  circumference  of  the  earth- — the 
entire  region  that  a  traveler  would  have  to  traverse  if  he 
started  west  from  Rome  and  kept  on  going  west  till  he 
arrived  at  Rome  again  from  the  east. 

When,  therefore,  Dante  says  that  the  birthplace  of  the 
divine  Veltro  shall  be  between  Feltro  and  Feltro  he  is  simply 
saying  that  he  shall  be  born  of  the  universe;  he  shall  be 
born  of  the  universe,  which  is  indeed,  in  some  more  or  less 
pantheistic  sense,  God,  just  as  Christ,  in  his  human  form, 
was  born  from  the  universal  God,  the  Trinity  in  which  he 
is  the  somma  sapienza. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  i8i 

Now  the  reason  that  Dante  picked  the  particular  town 
Feltro  as  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  circumference 
of  the  birthplace  of  the  divine  Veltro  appears,  I  think,  in  the 
allusion  which  he  makes  to  Feltro  in  Par.  ix.  52-53.  In 
speaking,  in  this  canto,  of  broken  vows,  Cunizza  says: 

Piangera  Feltro  ancora  la  diffalta 
Deir  empio  suo  pastor. 

The  diffalta  to  which  she  refers  was  the  betrayal  by  the 
bishop  of  Feltro  (Feltre)  of  certain  political  refugees  who 
had  fled  to  him  for  the  sanctuary  of  the  church.  The 
church  was  universally  regarded  as  the  symbol  of  the  divine 
mother,  and  the  violation  of  the  sanctuary  of  the  church 
was  to  be  considered,  therefore,  as  a  violation  of  the  mother 
herself.  Such  a  violation  of  the  mother  as  symbolized  by  the 
church  could  be  expressed,  accordingly,  as  Dante  and  other 
medieval  symbolists  constantly  did  express  it,  by  some  such 
term  as  adultery  or  prostitution. 

In  support  of  this  interpretation  of  the  diffalta  delV  empio 
suo  pastor  as  symbolizing  a  sexual  violation  of  the  divine 
mother,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  diffalta  is  the  very  word  used 
by  Dante  in  Purg.  xxviii.  94,  for  the  sin,  a  sexual  sin  involving 
the  motherhood  of  mankind,  for  which  Adam  and  Eve  were 
expelled  from  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

Interpreted  thus  as  a  symbol  of  the  violated  mother, 
Feltro  is  appropriately  named  here  as  the  birthplace  of  the 
divinely  reborn  Veltro.  The  fact  that  Dante  mentions 
Feltro  twice  in  the  phrase:  sua  nazion  sara  tra  Feltro  e  Feltro, 
may  be  taken  as  an  expression  of  the  dual  nature  of  the 
adulterous  act,  which,  as  I  said  above,  is  considered  sym- 
bolically as  at  the  same  time  sinful  and  virtuous.  Thus 
the  two  Feltros,  which  are  really  one,  correspond  to  the 
two  mothers,  so  common  in  myths  of  rebirth,  who  are 
really  one  and  the  same  mother,  for^the  two^forms,'unregener- 
ate  and  regenerate,  of  one  and  the  same  son. 

In  connection  with  the  historical  incident  for  which  Dante 
mentions  Feltro  in  Par.  ix,  and  for  which,  as  I  suggest,  he 


i82      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

chose  the  town  as  the  symbol  of  the  mother  of  the  divine 
Veltroy  there  is  a  detail  which  may  have  acted  as  a  further 
determinant  of  his  choice.  The  political  refugees  who  sought 
the  sanctuary  of  the  church  in  Feltro  had  revolted  against 
the  power  of  King  Roberto.  Now  the  sister  of  King  Ro- 
berto was  a  Beatrice,  and  this  Beatrice  had  been  the  wife 
of  the  predecessor  of  Roberto,  Azzone  III  d'Este.  Beatrice 
is  thus  intimately  associated  as  wife  and  sister  with  the 
paternal  image  of  kingship.  She  was  sister  and  bride  of 
the  king,  just  as  the  Shulamite,  the  commonly  recognized 
symbol  of  the  church  in  the  Song  of  Songs,  was  called  the 
sister  and  bride  of  her  kingly  lover.  Inasmuch  as  the 
sedition  was  directed  against  the  royal  power,  she  may  be 
taken  as  the  outraged  wife  of  the  outraged  king,  and  so  as  a 
symbol,  in  the  actual  historical  sedition,  of  the  violated 
mother.  The  fact  that  her  name  was  Beatrice  gives  the  use 
of  the  incident  by  Dante  the  character  of  an  allusion  to  the 
mother  symbolism  of  the  Beatrice  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 
Dante's  Beatrice,  as  I  will  show  in  the  chapter  on  Beatrice, 
is  the  symbol  of  the  mother  of  the  divinely  reborn  Dante 
himself;  and  Dante's  choice  of  Feltro  as  a  symbol  of  the 
mother  was  determined,  I  believe,  both  by  the  incident  of 
the  violated  sanctuary  and  also  by  the  fact  of  the  appear- 
ance, in  the  incident,  of  a  Beatrice  in  a  mother-like  role. 
The  incident  thus  shows,  appropriately  for  the  symbolism, 
two  symbols  of  the  violated  mother,  and  one  of  them,  his- 
torically, had  the  name  of  Dante's  own  symbol  of  mother- 
hood, Beatrice. 

LONZA 

The  Feltro  is  mentioned  in  Inf.  i,  after  the  mention  of 
three  other  animals,  the  lonza,  the  leone^  and  the  lupa. 
Dante  meets  these  three  animals  in  his  attempt  to  climb 
the  delectable  mountain,  and  it  is  after  his  appeal  to  Virgil 
to  be  saved  from  them  that  Virgil  prophesies  the  coming 
of  the  Veltroy  who  shall  slay  the  lupa.,  apparently  the  most 
dangerous  of  the  three. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  183 

The  lonza,  as  I  will  now  show,  is  another  of  the  symbolic 
guises  of  Dante.  The  lonza  represents  Dante  in  his  unre- 
generate,  or  human,  guise,  just  as  the  Veltro  represents  him 
as  reborn  and  divine.  The  lupa^  as  I  suggested  in  speaking 
of  the  Veltro^  represents  his  mother;  and  the  leone  represents 
his  father. 

The  lonza  is  described  in  the  four  terzine,  Inf.  i.  31-42: 

Ed  ecco,  quasi  al  cominciar  dell'  erta,  31 

Una  lonza  leggiera  e  presta  molto, 

Che  di  pel  maculato  era  coperta. 
E  non  mi  si  partia  dinanzi  al  volto;  34 

Anzi  impediva  tanto  il  mio  cammino, 

Ch'  io  fui  per  ritornar  piu  volte  volto. 
Tempo  era  dal  principio  del  mattino;  37 

E  il  sol  montava  su  con  quelle  stelle 

Ch'  eran  con  lui,  quando  1'  amor  divino 
Mosse  da  prima  quelle  cose  belle;  40 

Si  che  a  bene  sperar  m'  era  cagione 

Di  quella  fera  alia  gaietta  pelle 

Notice  that  the  first  line  of  the  passage  begins  with  ed, 
which  we  have  already  recognized  as  a  signature,  and  that 
the  last  line  begins  with  a  d,  so  that  the  beginnings  of  the 
first  and  last  lines  spell  ed.  The  passage  is  thus  significantly 
bounded. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters: 


31 

E 

34 

E    N 

37 

T 

40 

M 

Read:  mente 

Now  consider  on  the  sam( 

letters: 

31 

ED  ECCO  quasi  a 

34 

E    N 

37 

T 

40 

M 

the  same  lines  the  following  marginal 


Read:  ecco  quasi  me,  dante 


i84      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

In  the  two  acrostic  readings  on  the  same  lines:  mente 
and  Ecco  quasi  me,  dante,  there  is  the  same  association  of 
MENTE  and  DANTE  which  appears  in  the  acrostics  of  the  dvx 
passage  (pp.  122-3).  Dante  is  here  identifying  himself  not 
only  with  the  lonza  but  also  with  mente.  The  reason  that  he 
identifies  himself  with  mente  is  that  mente  corresponds 
to  Christ,  as  sapienza,  in  the  divine  Trinity,  which,  as  Dante 
tells  us  in  the  opening  lines  of  Inf.  iii,  is  composed  of  the 
divina  potestate,  for  the  Father,  the  somma  sapienza^  for  the 
Son,  and  the  primo  amore^  for  the  Holy  Ghost. 

In  the  Trinity  thus  considered  as  a  group  of  persons, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  name  of 
the  mother  of  the  divine  family.  For  the  mother  symbolism  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  see  pp.  330-5,  463.  This  family,  moreover, 
corresponds  to  the  three  categories  of  the  mind:  will,  intellect, 
and  emotion,  so  that  the  Trinity  is  at  once  a  symbol  of  the 
family,  as  composed  of  three  persons,  and  a  symbol  of  the 
mind,  which  unites  the  three  categories.  Dante,  by  identi- 
fying himself  with  mente,  is  again,  therefore,  identifying 
himself  with  Christ.  In  identifying  himself  with  the  lonza 
he  is  symbolizing  himself  in  his  human,  or  unregenerate, 
form. 

In  addition  to  the  acrostic  signature  there  is  an  interior 
sequence  which  appears  as  follows: 


31  Ed  ecco  quasi  al   cominciar  dell'erta 

32  una  loNza  leggiera  e  presta  molto 

33  che  di  pel  mAculato   era  coperta 

34  e  non  mi   si  partia  Dinanzi   al  volto 

35  anzi   impediva  tanto   il  mIO  cammino 

36  ch'io   fui  per  ritornar  piu  volTe  volto 


Read  e  of  ed^  31;  n  of  lonza,  32;  a  of  maculato,  i^y^  d  of 
dinanzi,  34;  10  of  mio,  35;  t  of  volte,  36:  10  dante. 

The  signature  begins  on  ed,  which  is  Dante's  symbol, 
runs  through  the  n  o{  lonza,  and  through  the  d  of  the  hinting 
words  dinanzi  al  volto. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  185 

LUPA 

We  have  thus  seen  that  Dante  is  here  represented  in  two 
forms,  unregenerate  and  regenerate,  in  the  lonza  and  in  the 
Veltro.  He  is  represented  as  the  son  in  a  family  group  of 
three,  of  which  the  mother  is  represented  by  the  lupa  and 
the  father  by  the  leone.  The  lupa  has  the  same  relation  to 
the  Veltro  that  the  puttana  has  to  the  dvx.  The  appro- 
priateness of  this  symbolic  representation  of  the  family  as 
lonza,  lupa,  and  leone  in  the  Divina  Commedia  as  a  dream  I 
cannot  develop  here.  Let  it  suffice  for  our  present  purpose 
to  show  the  cryptographic  justification  for  identifying  the 
lupa  with  the  mother  of  Dante,  just  as  we  have  already 
identified  the  lonza  with  Dante  himself  by  means  of  his 
cryptographic  signatures. 

The  description  of  the  lupa  is  full  of  suggestions  of  her 
maternal  character.  The  use  of  gravezza,  for  instance,  line 
52,  is  capable  of  being  understood  in  a  double  sense  as  re- 
ferring to  pregnancy.  In  connection  with  this  duplicity  of 
meaning  note  also  the  possible  duplicity  of  the  line: 

E  molte  genti  fe'  gia  viver  grame. 

In  saying  of  her  that  she  "made  many  people  live  sorrow- 
ful" Dante  may  be  understood  to  be  saying  that  she  made 
many  people  live  in  the  sense  of  having  given  birth  to  them. 
Her  hunger  and  her  eating  of  her  victims  are  both  referable 
to  sexual  hunger  and  to  the  sexual  act  on  the  part  of 
woman  as  symbolized  by  the  act  of  swallowing  or  eating. 
This  symbolism  is  widespread  in  ancient  myth  and  medieval 
fiction,  as  in  Boccaccio's  story  of  the  eating  of  the  man- 
drake. For  a  very  special  development  of  this  symbolism  in 
the  Vita  Nuova  see  the  discussion  of  Dante's  dream  that  his 
heart  is  being  eaten  by  Beatrice,  Chapter  VIII,  pp.  369-73. 
See  also  the  discussion  of  the  incident,  recorded  in  Purg. 
xxiii,  of  the  mother  who  ate  her  own  son  (pp.  209-10).  The 
dangerous  character  of  the  lupa,  which  is  so  strongly  em- 
phasized, is  to  be  understood  as  the  danger  of  the  sexual 
relation  which  the  son  imagines  she  desires  with  him  and 


i86      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

which  the  son  himself,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  desires 
with  her.  It  is  no  other,  in  fact,  than  the  danger  of  the  in- 
cestuous act  through  which  alone,  in  despite  of  the  jealous 
prohibition  of  the  father,  the  son  can  hope  for  his  rebirth. 
In  insisting  on  her  dangerous  character  Dante  does  not 
confine  himself  to  the  manifest  text.  He  expresses  the  idea 
in  an  acrostic  in  the  passage.  Inf.  i.  88-99,  "^^  which  Virgil 
warns  Dante  to  beware  of  her: 

Vedi  la  bestia,  per  cui  io  mi  volsi:  88 

Aiutami  da  lei,  famoso  saggio, 

Ch'  ella  mi  fa  tremar  le  vene  e  i  polsi.' 
'A  te  convien  tenere  altro  viaggio,'  91 

Rispose,  poi  che  lagrimar  mi  vide, 

'Se  vuoi  campar  d'esto  loco  selvaggio: 
Ch^  questa  bestia,  per  la  qual  tu  gride,  94 

Non  lascia  altrui  passar  per  la  sua  via, 

Ma  tanto  lo  impedisce  che  I'uccide: 
Ed  ha  natura  si  malvagia  e  ria,  97 

Che  mai  non  empie  la  bramosa  voglia, 

E  dopo  il  pasto  ha  piu  fame  che  pria. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  are: 
88       v 

91  A 

94       c 

97  E 

Read:  cave 

That  Dante  indeed  intends  the  lupa  to  be  a  dream-like 
representation  of  his  own  mother  in  her  hostile  or  danger- 
ous aspect  appears  from  the  following  interior  sequences  in 
passages  describing  her  in  InJ.  i: 

47  con  la  test'ALta  e  con   rabbiosa   fame 

48  si   che  parEa  che  L'AEr  ne   temesse 

49  ed  una  Lupa  che  di   tutte  BraMe 

50  semBiava  carca  nella  sua  mAgrezza 

51  e  molte   genti    fe'gia  vivER  graMe 

52  questa  mi   porse   tanto  Di   grAvezza 

53  con   la  paura  che  uscia  Di   sua  vista 

54  ch'io  perdei   la  spERanza  dell'altezza 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  187 

Read  al  of  alta^  47;  e  of  parea^  48;  l  of  lupa^  49;  b  of 
sembiava^  50:   bella. 

Read  l  o{  alta^  47;  lae  oi  Faer,  48;  b  oibrame^  49:  bella. 

Read  m  of  brame^  49;  first  a  of  magrezza^  50;  er  of  viver,  51 ; 
D  oi  di,  52:   madre. 

Read  m  oi  grame^  51;  first  a  o{  gravezza,  52;  d  of  di,  ^3; 
ER  of  speranza,  54:  madre. 

In  the  second  line  of  the  following  passage  I  have  adopted 
instead  of  Moore's  reading,  venendomi  Incontroy  a  reading  for 
which  there  is  manuscript  authority,  venendomi  contra. 

58  tal  mi  fece  la  BEstia  senza  pace 

59  che  venendomi  contra  A  poco  a  poco 

60  mi  ripingeva  la  dove  il  soL  tace 

61  mentre  ch'io  rovinava  in  basso  Loco 

Read  be  of  bestia^  58;  a  following  contra^  59;  l  of  jo/,  60; 

L  of  /ofO,  61  :     BELLA. 

86  tu  sE'solo  colui  da  cui   io  tolsi 

87  lo  belLo  stile  che  m'ha  fatto  onore 

88  vedi   la  Bestia  per  cui   io  mi  volsi 

89  aiutami  dA  Lei   famoso  saggio 

Read  e  of  se,  86;  second  l  of  belloy  87;  b  of  bestia^  88; 
L  of  lei  with  the  adjacent  a  of  da^  89;  bella. 

There  are  suggestions  of  the  sound  of  this  word  in  bello, 
87,  and  in  la  be  {stia),  88. 

97  ed  ha  natuRa  si  malvagia  e  ria 

98  che  mai  non  empiE  la  bramosa  voglia 

99  e  dopo  il  paste  ha  piu  fAme  che  pria 

100  molti  son  gli  animAli  a  cui  s'aMmoglia 

101  e  piu  saranno  AncoRa  infin  che  il  velTro 

102  verra  che  la  fara  Morir  con  doglia 

103  questi  non  cibera  TerRa  ne  peltro 

104  ma  sapienza  E  amorE  e  virTute 

105  e  sua  NAzion  sara  tra  feltro  E  feltro 

106  Di  quell 'umile  italia  fia  salute 


i88       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Read  r  of  natura,  97;  second  e  of  empie,  98;  a  oi  jame^ 
99;  first  M  of  ammogliay  100;  t  of  veltro^  loi :  matre. 

Read  on  the  vertical  line  the  second  a  of  anima/i,  100;  r  of 
ancora,  loi ;  m  of  morir,  102;  t  of  terra,  103;  e  oi  amore,  104: 

MATRE. 

Read  the  first  a  of  ancora,  loi;  m  of  morir,  102;  second  r 
o{  terra,  103;  first  t  oivirtute,  104;  e  be  twee  n/<?//ro  dindfeltro, 

105:     MATRE. 

Read  t  oi  terra,  103;  e  preceding  amore,  104;  na  of  nazion, 

105;  D  of  di,   106:     DANTE. 

For  the  other  sequence  in  this  passage  see  page  175. 

A  few  lines  below  is  another  interior  sequence,  as  follows: 

111  la  onde   inviDia  prima  dipartilla 

112  ond'io  per  lo  tuo  Me'   penso  e  discerno 

113  che   tu  mi  segui  ed  io  sARo  tua  guida 

114  e   trarrotti  di  qui  per  loco  etErno 

Read  from  d  of  invidia,  1 1 1 ;  m  of  me,  112;  ar  of  saro,  113; 
second  e  of  eterno,  114:  madre. 

This  sequence  ends  on  the  word  eterno.  As  we  shall  see, 
the  loco  eterno.  Hell,  is  symbolically  the  womb  of  the 
mother. 

VIRGIL 

Corresponding  to  the  mother  symbolism  which  I  have  now 
shown  in  Feltro,  the  puttana,  and  the  lupa,  and  which  I  will 
further  develop  in  Chapters  VII  and  VIII,  there  is  consis- 
tently worked  out  in  the  Divina  Commedia  a  father  sym- 
bolism which  appears  in  connection  with  the  lonza  and  the 
lupa  in  the  figure  of  the  leone  and  which  keeps  reappearing 
throughout  the  entire  poem  in  various  other  father  images. 
Like  the  mother  images,  these  father  images  appear  in 
two  aspects,  the  one  hostile  and  hated,  the  other  benign 
and  loved.     The  father  image  toward  which  Dante  gives 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  189 

his  extremest  expression  of  hatred  is  Filippo  Argenti.  This 
figure  appears,  significantly,  in  connection  with  the  one  direct 
allusion  in  the  entire  works  of  Dante  to  his  mother,  Inf.  viii. 
45.  For  the  development  of  the  father  and  mother  sym- 
bolism in  connection  with  Filippo  Argenti  and  the  direct 
allusion  to  Dante's  mother,  see  Chapter  VIII,  p.  325, 

In  the  symbolism  of  myth,  religion,  and  dreams  the  hos- 
tility of  the  father  is  to  be  understood,  in  so  far  as  it  sym- 
bolizes the  sexual  relation,  as  due  to  his  jealousy  of  the  son 
on  account  of  the  son's  incestuous  relation  with  the  mother 
in  the  accomplishment  of  the  son's  rebirth.  There  is  an- 
other important  aspect  of  the  father  symbolism  as  it  ap- 
pears in  ancient  myth  and  religion:  the  son  is  considered 
as  the  reborn  form  of  the  father  himself.  This  idea  sur- 
vives, indeed,  in  the  common  expression  that  "parents  live 
again  in  their  children,"  and  it  explains  the  widespread 
custom  of  infanticide  among  primitive  peoples,  a  modifica- 
tion of  which  appears  in  the  Passover  and  in  the  slaughter 
of  the  innocents.  The  father  slays  the  child  because  he 
regards  the  child  as  stealing  away  from  him  his  own 
identity. 

An  example  in  the  Divina  Commedia  of  a  symbol  of  the 
father  who  is  presented  as  benign  and  as  reborn  in  Dante 
himself  is  Virgil.  Dante  constantly  refers  to  Virgil  as 
father,  and  in  so  far  as  he  derives  his  literary  inspiration 
from  the  ^neid,  he  represents  himself  as  a  reincarnation  of 
Virgil  as  his  "author."  This  idea  is  expressed  in  an  acrostic 
in  the  passage  describing  the  first  appearance  of  Virgil,  in  Inf. 
i.  In  response  to  Dante's  immediate  appeal  to  be  saved 
from  the  lupa,  Virgil  replies  by  telling  Dante  who  he  is  and 
asking  Dante  why  he  does  not  ascend  the  dilettoso  monte. 
The  seven  terzine  beginning  Inf.  i.  67,  read  as  follows: 

Risposemi:   'Non  uomo,  uomo  gia  fui,  67 

E  li  parenti  miei  furon  Lombardi, 

Mantovani  per  patria  ambedui. 
Nacqui  sub  lulio,  ancorche  fosse  tardi,  70 

E  vissi  a  Roma  sotto  il  buono  Augusto, 

Al  tempo  degli  Dei  falsi  e  bugiardi. 


190      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Poeta  fui,  e  cantai  di  quel  giusto  73 

Figliuol  d'  Anchise,  che  venne  da  Troia, 

Poich^  il  superbo  Ilion  fu  combusto. 
Ma  tu  perch^  ritorni  a  tanta  noia?  76 

Perch^  non  sali  il  dilettoso  monte, 

Ch'  e  principio  e  cagion  di  tutta  gioia?' 
'Or  se'  tu  quel  Virgilio,  e  quella  fonte  79 

Che  spande  di  pariar  si  largo  fiume?' 

Risposi  lui  con  vergognosa  fronte. 
'O  degli  altri  poeti  onore  e  lume,  82 

Vagliami  il  lungo  studio  e  il  grande  amore, 

Che  m'  ha  fatto  cercar  lo  tuo  volume. 
Tu  se'  lo  mio  maestro  e  il  mio  autore:  85 

Tu  se'  solo  colui,  da  cui  io  tolsi 

Lo  bello  stile  che  m'  ha  fatto  onore. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  these  seven  terzine: 

67        RI 

70  NA 

73  POETA 

76  MA 

79       OR 
82       o 

85         T 

Read:  marc  rinato  poeta 

The  full  name  of  Virgil  was  Publius  Virgilius  Maro,  and 
Dante  uses  here  the  name  Maro  for  a  special  reason  which 
I  will  presently  explain. 

That  the  poeta  in  whom  Virgil  is  thus  said  to  be  reborn  is 
indeed  Dante  appears  from  the  following  interior  sequence 
in  this  passage: 

70  Nacqui  sub  iulio  anchorche  fosse  tardi 

71  e  vissi  A  roma  sotto  il  buono  augusto 

72  al  tempo  degli  Dei  falsi  e  bugiardi 

73  poeta  fui  e  cantai  di  quEl  giusto 

74  figliuol  d' anchise  che  venne  da  Troia 

Read  n  of  nacqui,  70,  a,  71,  d  of  dei,  72,  e  of  quel,  73,  t 
oi  troia,  74:    dante.     Note  that  nacqui  and  Troia  are  both 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  191 

significant  words;  Troia  is  a  word  commonly  used  to  desig- 
nate a  prostitute,  so  that  Dante  is  here  again  associated  with 
the  prostitute  type  in  his  rebirth  symboHsm,  as  with  the 
puttana  and  Taide. 

Notice  that  the  word  Troia  on  which  this  sequence  ends  is 
preceded  by  the  words  venne  da^  so  that  the  letters  of  Dante's 
name  are  grouped  thus: 

ven  NE  DA  T  roia 

In  connection  with  the  acrostic:  maro  rinato  poeta, 
I  promised  to  explain  Dante's  reason  for  referring  to  Virgil 
as  MARO.  Let  me  first,  however,  show  another  acrostic 
in  the  same  passage  reading  mare.  The  terzina  in  which 
Virgil  begins  to  speak  is  lines  67-69.  Consider  the  following 
marginal  letters  of  the  three  lines  of  this  terzina: 

67  R 

68  E 

69  ma 

Read:  mare 

Notice  in  connection  with  these  letters  that  the  initial 
letters,  which  do  not  include  the  interior  a,  spell  rem. 
rem,  like  the  English  use  of  "rebus,"  means  a  cryptographic 
device,  and  the  coincidence  of  rem  and  mare  suggests  that 
mare  is  some  sort  of  rebus. 

Notice  further  that  as  if  to  prove  that  mare,  the  Italian 
for  sea,  is  to  be  understood  here  as  the  name  of  Virgil,  Dante 
makes  an  acrostic  on  the  words  in  this  terzina  which  are 
actually  used  by  Virgil  himself.  The  only  word  in  the  terzina 
which  is  not  included  in  Virgil's  reply  to  Dante  is  the  initial 
word:  Risposemi.  Consider,  therefore,  the  following  marginal 
letters  of  Virgil's  own  words: 

67  NO 

68  E 

69  M 

Read:  nome 


192      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Thus  Virgil,  in  describing  himself,  may  be  considered  to 
give  his  nome  in  the  acrostic  rem,  mare.  But  this  is  not  the 
only  instance  in  which  Virgil  is  mentioned  as  mare.  In  InJ. 
viii.  7,  Dante  says  of  Virgil: 

Ed  io  mi  volsi  al  mar  di  tutto  il  senno. 

This  allusion  to  Virgil  as  the  mar  di  tutto  il  senno  has  not,  so 
far  as  I  know,  been  recognized  as  a  pun  on  marc. 

The  reason  that  Dante  thus  insists  on  the  name  maro 
for  Virgil  is  related,  I  believe,  to  the  famous  palindrome: 
roma-amor.  ROMA  as  an  anagram  for  amor  was  used 
by  medieval  symbolists,  if  I  understand  their  symbolism,  to 
express  the  union,  prenatal  or  incestuous,  of  Christ  and  his 
mother  Mary.  Christ  is  amor,  as  appears  in  Par.  xxxiii.  7, 
in  the  words  of  Bernardo  addressed  to  the  Virgin  Mary: 

Nel  ventre  tuo  si  raccese  I'amore. 

Just  as  Christ,  the  son,  is  thus  considered  amor,  so  roma 
is  considered  the  mother,  since  Rome,  as  the  seat  of  the 
church,  is  identified  with  the  church,  by  which  the  divine 
mother  is  constantly  symbolized.  The  union  of  the  divine 
mother  and  the  divine  son  is  thus  symbolized  by  a  word 
which  spells  by  exactly  the  same  letters  the  symbol  of  the 
mother  and  the  symbol  of  the  son. 

Now  maro,  as  containing  exactly  the  same  letters  as 
ROMA  and  AMOR,  is  also  an  anagram  for  roma  and  amor: 
and  it  is  so  used  by  Dante  to  indicate  t\\e^  father  by  the  same 
letters  that  indicate  the  mother  and  the  son. 

Thus  the  family  unit,  father,  mother,  and  son,  is  indi- 
cated by  the  same  letters  that  may  be  used,  in  three  different 
orders,  to  indicate  respectively  each  of  the  three  persons  of 
which  the  family  unit  is  composed.  The  three  persons  are 
thus  indicated  as  essentially  identical. 

This  identity  of  the  three  persons  of  the  family  as  com- 
posing a  unit  is  expressed  in  the  concept  of  the  Christian 
Trinity,  which,  as  Dante  defines  it,  Purg.  iii.  36,  is  one 
substance  in  three  persons.  The  three  persons  of  the  Trinity 
are  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost;   and  the  Holy  Ghost, 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  193 

as  appears  very  plainly  in  early  Christian  and  Gnostic  sym- 
bolism, is  the  mother.  Though  they  differ  as  persons,  they 
are  all  one  substance,  exactly  as  maro,  roma,  and  amor, 
though  differing  as  words,  are  all  one  substance  in  the  sense 
of  being  composed  of  the  same  letters. 

It  thus  appears  that  by  the  anagrammatic  maro,  amor, 
ROMA,  Dante  may  be  suggesting  the  divine  Trinity  of  which 
the  father  is  represented  by  Virgil,  the  son  by  Dante  him- 
self, and  the  mother,  as  I  shall  show  later,  by  Beatrice. 
That  Dante  had  the  anagrammatic  transformations  of  these 
three  words  in  mind  appears  from  the  fact  that  all  three 
words  are  used  in  the  same  passage,  maro  in  acrostic 
form,  Roma  in  line  71,  and  amove  in  line  83.  Moreover,  in 
the  preceding  passage  relating  to  the  lonza,  the  amor  divino 
is  mentioned,  line  39. 

The  union  of  the  three  persons  of  the  family  Trinity,  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost — or,  as  transferred  to  earth, 
God  (or  Joseph),  the  human  Christ,  and  the  Virgin  Mary — 
is  thus  symbolized  by  the  anagrammatic  maro,  amor, 
ROMA.  Now  it  is  essential  to  the  understanding  of  the 
Divina  Commedia^  and,  indeed,  of  medieval  Christianity, 
to  recognize  that  this  unity  of  the  three  persons  of  the 
divine  family  was  also  symbolized  in  terms  of  the  sexual 
life.  There  is  just  one  moment,  biologically,  when  the 
father,  son,  and  mother  are  physically  united,  and  that 
is  in  the  moment  of  sexual  union  between  the  father  and 
the  mother,  for  at  this  moment  the  son,  with  whom  the 
mother  is  being  impregnated,  exists  in  the  father  and  in  the 
mother  simultaneously.  This  biological  situation  may  explain 
by  analogy  the  mystery  of  the  unity  of  the  three  persons  of 
the  Godhead. 

Virgil  is  further  symbolized  as  the  father  by  being  as- 
sociated in  the  following  acrostic  with  the  lion,  a  common 
father  symbol.  The  passage,  Inf.  ii.  58-69,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

"O  anima  cortese  Mantovana,  58 

Di  cui  la  fama  ancor  nel  mondo  dura, 
E  dureri  quanto  il  moto  lontana: 


194      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

L'  amico  mio  e  non  della  ventura,  6i 

Nella  diserta  piaggia  6  impedito 

Si  nel  cammin,  che  volto  h  per  paura: 
E  temo  che  non  sia  gia  si  smarrito,  64 

Ch'  io  mi  sia  tardi  al  soccorso  levata, 

Per  quel  ch'  io  ho  di  lui  nel  Cielo  udito. 
Or  muovi,  e  con  la  tua  parola  ornata,  67 

E  con  cid  ch'  e  mestieri  al  suo  campare, 

L'  aiuta  si,  ch'  io  ne  sia  consolata. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  are: 
58      o 

61  L 

64  E 

67        O 

Read:  o  leg 

The  initials  of  the  lines  of  the  fourth  terzina  are: 

67  o 

68  E 

69  L 

Read  leg 

The  lines  on  which  these  acrostics  appear  are  part  of  the 
account  of  the  meeting  of  Virgil  as  father  and  Beatrice  as 
mother,  at  the  entrance  of  Hell,  a  meeting,  as  a  sex  symbol, 
which  results  in  the  rebirth  of  Dante.  For  the  development 
of  this  symbolism  see  Chapter  VIII. 

The  initials  of  the  first  terzina  of  the  foregoing  passage 
are: 

58  o 

59  D 

60  E 

Read:  deg 

DEO,  as  the  divine  father,  is  thus  associated  with  Virgil  as  a 
father  image. 

The  second  terzina  also  contains  an  acrostic  on  the  fol- 
lowing marginal  letters: 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  195 


61 

LA 

62 

NEL 

63 

S 

Read- 

SNELLA 

This  refers  perhaps  to  the  speed  of  Beatrice's  coming. 

The  idea  of  Virgil  as  a  father  image  is  borne  out  by  the 
acrostic  in  the  following  passage,  Par.  xvii.  19-21,  which 
consists  of  one  terzina: 

Mentre  ch'  io  era  a  Virgilio  congiunto 
Su  per  lo  monte  che  1'  anime  cura, 
E  discendendo  nel  mondo  defunto 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  this  terzina: 

19  ME 

20  s 

21  E 

Read:  seme 

This  cryptogram  is  interesting  in  relation  to  the  text. 
A  Virgilio  congiunto  suggests  that  Dante  is  of  the  seed  of 
Virgil  as  well  as  of  Cacciaguida. 


STATIUS 

One  of  the  enigmatic  figures  of  the  Divina  Commedia  is 
Statius,  who  appears  to  Dante  and  Virgil  after  he  has  been 
released  from  the  circle  of  the  prodigal  on  the  mountain  of 
Purgatory  and  who  accompanies  Dante  through  the  rest 
of  the  ascent  of  the  mountain  and  even  shares  with  Dante  the 
draught  of  the  river  Eunoe,  to  which  Dante  and  Statius  are 
led  together  by  Matelda. 

The  words  in  the  text  which  hint  at  the  explanation  of  the 
enigmatic  character  of  Statius  are  addressed  to  Statius  by 
Virgil,  who  is  referring  to  Dante: 

L'  anima  sua,  ch'  h  tua  e  mia  sirocchia. 
— Purg.  xxi.  28. 


196      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Virgil,  Statius,  and  Dante,  it  thus  appears,  are  sister  souls 
I  will  show  that  they  are  to  be  regarded,  in  the  symbolism  of 
the  Divina  Commedia^  as  composing  the  three  elements  of 
Dante  himself  regarded  as  a  trinity.  In  ancient  and 
medieval  philosophy  the  individual  is  considered  some- 
times as  having  a  dual  nature,  human  and  divine,  physical 
and  spiritual;  and  sometimes  as  having  a  triadic  nature, 
as  in  the  concept  of  the  three  souls  of  man;  or  as  in  the 
categories  of  the  mind,  intellect,  emotion,  and  will;  or  as 
in  the  symbol  of  the  divine  Trinity  as  a  family  unit.  Statius 
will  thus  prove  to  be  the  third  element  of  Dante  considered 
as  a  triad  composed  of  Dante  himself,  as  the  son,  or  intellect, 
Virgil,  as  the  father,  or  will,  and  Statius,  as  the  Holy  Ghost, 
mother,  or  emotion. 

When  Statius  appears  to  Dante  and  Virgil  he  has  just 
been  released  from  the  circle  of  the  prodigal.  He  is  to  be 
considered  as  reborn^  and  his  rebirth  is  indicated  by  the 
quaking  of  the  mountain.  This  quaking  symbolizes  the 
parturition  throes  of  the  mountain  releasing  the  newborn 
soul.  That  Statius  is  an  aspect  of  Dante  himself  is  in- 
dicated by  the  appearance,  line  68,  of  a  cinquecento^  cin- 
quecento  e  piu  being  the  number  of  years  that  Statius  has 
had  to  remain  in  the  circle  of  his  purgation.  Like  the 
Phoenix,  therefore,  he  is  reborn  at  the  end  of  about  five 
hundred  years.  And  I  surmise  that  like  the  passage  in 
which  the  Phoenix  is  mentioned,  the  present  passage  con- 
tains along  with  the  overtly  mentioned  five  hundred  a  con- 
cealed ten  and  five,  so  that  Statius  is  signed  with  the  cryp- 
tic number  of  the  dvx,  515.  The  concealed  ten  appears 
in  the  allusion  to  Christ.  In  medieval  symbolism  Christ  is  a 
ten.  God  as  a  trinity  is  three;  the  multiplication  of  trinity 
by  itself,  or  nine,  is  the  act  which  produces  the  human 
Christ;  and  ten,  as  the  number  following  nine,  the  symbol 
of  the  act  of  begetting,  is  the  symbol  of  the  begotten,  or 
Christ  himself.  The  concealed  five  appears  as  the  v  of 
Virgil,  mentioned  with  peculiar  emphasis  by  Statius  as  his 
poetical  father  and  mother. 

The  515  with  which  this  passage  describing  Statius  thus 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  197 

appears  to  be  stamped  is  shown  again.  The  terzina  com- 
mencing significantly  with  Ed  io,  and  containing  the  words: 
cinqiiecento  e  piu^  has  for  the  initials  of  its  lines:  e,  c,  l. 

These  letters  may  be  transmuted  into  515,  the  e  as  fifth 
letter  being  5,  the  c  as  100  being  i,  and  the  l  as  50  being  5. 

Further  confirmation  that  the  figure  of  Statius  conceals  a 
reference  to  Dante  appears  in  the  acrostic  in  the  speech  in 
which  Statius  declares  his  identity.  The  passage,  Purg.  xxi. 
82-102,  consists  of  seven  terzine: 

'Nel  tempo  che  il  buon  Tito  con  I'aiuto  82 

Del  sommo  Rege  vendico  le  fora, 

Ond'  usci  il  sangue  per  Giuda  venduto, 
Col  nome  che  piu  dura  e  piu  onora  85 

Era  io  di  la,'  rispose  quello  spirto, 

'Famoso  assai,  ma  non  con  fede  ancora. 
Tanto  fu  dolce  mio  vocale  spirto,  88 

Che,  Tolosano,  a  se  mi  trasse  Roma, 

Dove  mertai  le  tempie  ornar  di  mirto. 
Stazio  la  gente  ancor  di  la  mi  noma:  91 

Cantai  di  Tebe,  e  poi  del  grande  Achille, 

Ma  caddi  in  via  con  la  seconda  soma. 
Al  mio  ardor  fur  seme  le  faville,  94 

Che  mi  scaldar,  della  divina  fiamma, 

Onde  sono  allumati  piu  di  mille; 
Deir  Eneida  dico,  la  qual  mamma  97 

Fummi,  e  fummi  nutrice  poetando: 

Senz'  essa  non  fermai  peso  di  dramma. 
E,  per  esser  vivuto  di  la  quando  100 

Visse  Virgilio,  assentirei  un  sole 

Piu  che  non  deggio  al  mio  uscir  di  bando.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 


82 

N 

85 

COL    NOME 

88 

T 

91 

STAZIO 

94 

A 

97 

D 

100 

E 

Read:  stazio  col  nome  dante 


198      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Since  Dante,  Virgil,  and  Statius  are  sister  souls,  they 
form  a  trinity  which  has  distinct  analogies  with  the  Trinity 
of  the  Christian  Godhead.  Virgil  is  the  father,  as  indeed 
he  is  so  often  called  by  Dante;  and  Dante  is  the  son,  as  we 
have  already  seen.  It  remains,  therefore,  if  the  analogy 
with  the  Trinity  is  to  hold,  for  Statius  to  correspond  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  or  the  mother.  The  mother  character  of  Sta- 
tius is  here  suggested  by  the  expression,  Purg.  xxi.  92-93: 

Cantai  di  Tcbe,  e  poi  del  grande  Achille, 
Ma  caddi  in  via  con  la  seconda  soma. 

The  burden  of  his  poem  about  Achilles,  which  he  was 
carrying  at  the  time  of  his  death  and  which  he  had  there- 
fore not  yet  been  delivered  of,  suggests  the  language  of  preg- 
nancy, suggesting  in  turn  the  mother  character  of  Statius. 
Another  suggestion  of  his  mother-like  character  is  given 
in  the  words  which  immediately  follow: 

Al  mio  ardor  fur  seme  le  faville,  94 

Che  mi  scaldar,  della  divina  fiamma, 
Onde  sono  allumati  piu  di  mille; 

Deir  Eneida  dice,  la  qual  mamma  97 

Fummi,  e  fummi  nutrice  poetando: 
Senz'  essa  non  fermai  peso  di  dramma. 

In  these  words  Statius  speaks  of  himself  as  if  having  been 
impregnated  by  the  seed  of  the  /Eneid.  Immediately  after 
referring  to  the  /Eneid  in  its  male  aspect  as  seme^  he  expresses 
a  female  character  in  it  by  his  reference  to  it  as  mamma, 
the  breast  at  which  he  was  nourished.  This  complicated 
relation  of  Statius  to  a  poem  which  he  thus  designates 
in  terms  of  father  and  of  mother  symbolism  together  is 
exactly  the  relation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  God  the  Father, 
as  at  once  the  wife  of  God,  impregnated  with  the  seed  that 
produces  the  divine  son,  and  also  the  daughter  of  God, 
who,  as  the  first  of  all  beings,  must  be  conceived  as  the 
male  and  female  source  together  of  the  existence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  These  precise  relationships  were  the  subject 
of  certain  early  Christian  and  Gnostic  speculations. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  199 

Virgil,  Statius,  and  Dante  are  thus  the  trinity  of  Dante 
himself  as  poet^  and  the  analogy  of  the  three  to  father, 
mother,  and  son  respectively  will  explain  the  relative  posi- 
tions of  the  three  in  their  ascent  together  of  the  mount  of 
Purgatory.  These  positions  are  most  precisely  defined  by 
Dante.  Before  they  reach  the  purifying  fire,  Purg.  xxvii. 
10-12,  Dante  walks  behind  Virgil  and  Statius;  during  the 
passage  through  the  fire  Dante  walks  between  them,  with 
Virgil  in  front  and  Statius  behind;  and  in  the  Terrestrial 
Paradise  Dante  precedes  Virgil  and  Statius. 

Now  these  relative  positions  are  precisely  appropriate 
to  the  symbolized  sexual  relationship  of  the  three.  Before 
the  birth  of  the  son — that  is,  before  the  three  reach  the 
purifying  fire — the  son,  as  not  yet  in  existence,  is  preceded 
by  his  father  and  his  mother.  In  the  purifying  fire,  which 
symbolizes  the  sexual  union  of  the  father  and  the  mother 
in  the  begetting  of  the  son  and  his  conception,  the  son,  as 
sperma^  is  between  the  father  and  the  mother.  And  after 
the  emergence  from  the  fire,  which  symbolizes  the  birth  of 
the  son,  the  son  precedes  his  parents,  in  the  sense  of  per- 
petuating and  replacing  them.  The  treatment  of  Virgil 
and  Statius  in  the  conclusion  of  Purgatorio  carries  out  this 
symbolism  precisely.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Virgil  dis- 
appears and  that  after  his  disappearance  Statius  accom- 
panies Dante  to  drink  of  the  Eunoe.  Now  the  reason  that 
Virgil  as  the  father  disappears  is  simply  that  the  son,  once 
born,  has  to  be  reborn,  and  that  in  order  to  be  reborn  he 
must  replace  the  father  in  his  sexual  union  with  the  mother. 
This  act  of  incest  is  a  necessary  feature  of  rebirth  in  ancient 
and  medieval  symbolism.  Appropriately,  therefore,  after 
the  disappearance  of  the  father,  Statius  and  Dante  as 
mother  and  son  unite  in  the  mystic  draught  of  the  Eunoe, 
which  symbolizes  the  sexual  union  through  which  Dante  is  to 
be  reborn.  Statius  is  never  mentioned  again.  He  is  left 
behind,  as  a  mother  symbol,  by  the  son  who  issues  from  him 
and  who  is  to  find  in  Paradise  a  more  perfect  symbol  of 
motherhood.  Let  me  repeat  here  that  Statius  is  the  symbol 
of  the  mother  of  Dante  merely  as  poet;   in  the  draught  of 


200       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

the  Eunoe  Dante  and  Statius  are  accompanied  by  Matelda, 
who  is  also  a  symbol  of  the  mother,  just  as  is  Beatrice. 

I  have  thus  shown  that  Statius  is  the  symbol  of  the 
motherhood  from  which  Dante  drew  his  poetic  inspiration, 
just  as  Virgil  is  the  symbol  of  the  poetic  fatherhood.  More- 
over, Statius  represents  an  aspect  of  Dante  himself,  just  as 
in  the  Trinity  each  person  of  the  Trinity  represents  an 
aspect  of  the  Trinity  conceived  as  one  substance.  There 
is  no  contradiction  in  saying  that  Statius  has  the  double 
character  which  I  have  here  ascribed  to  him.  Statius  is  at 
once  the  poetic  motherhood  from  which  Dante  derives  and 
Dante  himself,  exactly  as  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  Trinity  is 
at  once  the  mother  of  the  divine  son  and  the  divine  son  him- 
self in  so  far  as  he  is  to  be  identified  with  the  Trinity. 


ROMEO 

There  is  a  concealed  515  in  Par.  vi.  1 24-142,  by  means 
of  which  Dante  signifies  that  he  is  alluding  to  himself  in 
what  he  says  of  Romeo.     The  passage  reads: 

Diverse  voci  fan  giu  dolci  note;  124 

Cosi  diversi  scanni  in  nostra  vita 

Rendon  dolce  armonia  tra  queste  rote. 
E  dentro  alia  presente  margarita  127 

Luce  la  luce  di  Romeo,  di  cui 

Fu  r  opra  bella  e  grande  mal  gradita. 
Ma  i  Provenzali  che  fer  contra  lui  130 

Non  hanno  riso,  e  pero  mal  cammina 

Qual  si  fa  danno  del  ben  fare  altrui. 
Quattro  figlie  ebbe,  e  ciascuna  regina,  133 

Ramondo  Beringhieri,  e  cio  gli  fece 

Romeo  persona  umile  e  peregrina; 
E  poi  il  mosser  le  parole  biece  136 

A  domandar  ragione  a  questo  giusto, 

Che  gli  assegno  sette  e  cinque  per  diece. 
Indi  partissi  povero  e  vetusto;  139 

E  se  il  mondo  sapesse  il  cor  ch'  egli  ebbe 

Mendicando  sua  vita  a  frusto  a  frusto, 
Assai  lo  loda,  e  piii  lo  loderebbe.'  142 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  201 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 


124 

D 

127 

E 

130 

M 

^33 

QUAT 

136 

E  PC 

139 

IN 

142 

A 

Read:  poema.     dante  qui 

The  passage  relates  to  Romeo,  who  made  queens  of  the 
four  daughters  of  his  master  and  who  had  been  so  just  that 
he  had  given  his  master,  in  dealing  with  his  affairs,  seven 
and  five  for  ten.  The  usual  interpretation  is  that  he  had 
given  his  master  twelve  for  ten,  or  more  than  his  master 
had  a  right  to  expect.  The  numbers  here  mentioned  are 
all,  however,  used  with  a  double  meaning.  The  quattro, 
line  133,  may  be  considered  as  d,  the  fourth  letter  of  the 
alphabet,  and  so  representing  500.     Now  notice  the  wording: 

gli  assegno  sette  e  cinque  per  diece. 

Sette  may  be  taken  as  an  anagram  for  teste,  the  cryptogra- 
phic heads  that  show  in  the  integers  of  the  cryptic  number 
515.  Read  now  gli  assegno  teste^  and  there  remain  of  the 
numbers  mentioned  a  ten  and  a  five,  which  complete  along 
with  the  concealed  d,  or  500,  the  cryptic  signature  515. 

In  the  praise  of  Romeo  and  in  the  pity  of  his  having  to 
beg  his  living  Dante  is  here  really  praising  and  pitying  him- 
self. 

THE  EAGLE 

The  next  of  the  symbolic  guises  of  Dante  which  I  wish 
to  consider  in  the  present  chapter  is  the  Eagle  in  the  heaven 
of  Jupiter.  This  eagle  is  formed,  as  I  already  mentioned, 
by  the  spirits  of  the  just.  Visible  to  Dante  as  sparks  flying 
about  like  birds,  the  spirits  of  the  just  form  themselves  suc- 
cessively into  letters  spelling  the  sentence:  Diligite  iustitiam^ 


202      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

qui  iudicatis  terram.  On  the  last  letter  of  this  sentence,  m, 
the  spirits  pause,  and  then,  by  the  addition  of  other  spirits, 
transform  the  m  first  into  a  fleur-de-lys  and  then  into  an 
eagle. 

I  have  already  identified  the  first  three  letters  of  the  sen- 
tence which  the  spirits  form,  dil,  as  a  cryptographic  guise 
of  Dante.  And  I  have  also  identified  as  a  cryptographic  guise 
of  Dante  the  acrostic  vel  in  the  passage  which  is  uttered  by 
the  eagle.  Par.  xix.  115-141.  Analogous  to  this  passage  in  its 
curious  symmetry  is  Par.  xx.  40-72,  also  uttered  by  the 
eagle.  I  will  show  that  Dante  is  referring  to  himself  in  this 
passage,  and  I  will  then  show  that  the  eagle  who  utters  the 
passage  is  one  of  Dante's  symbolic  guises.  The  passage 
reads  as  follows: 


Ora  conosce  il  merto  del  suo  canto,  40 

In  quanto  efFetto  fu  del  suo  consiglio, 
Per  lo  remunerar  ch'  e  altrettanto. 

Dei  cinque  che  mi  fan  cerchio  per  ciglio,      43 
Colui  che  piu  al  becco  mi  s'  accosta, 
La  vedovella  consolo  del  figlio, 

Ora  conosce  quanto  caro  costa  46 

Non  seguir  Cristo,  per  1'  esperienza 
Di  questa  dolce  vita,  e  dell'  opposta. 

E  quel  che  segue  in  la  circonferenza  49 

Di  che  ragiono,  per  1'  arco  superno, 
Morte  indugio  per  vera  penitenza. 

Ora  conosce  che  il  giudizio  eterno  52 

Non  si  trasmuta,  quando  degno  preco 
Fa  crastino  laggiu  dell'  odierno. 

L'  altro  che  segue,  con  le  leggi  e  meco,        55 
Sotto  buona  intenzion  che  fe'  mal  frutto, 
Per  cedere  al  pastor,  si  fece  Greco. 

Ora  conosce  come  il  mal  dedutto  58 

Dal  suo  bene  operar  non  gli  h  nocivo, 
Avvegna  che  sia  il  mondo  indi  distrutto, 

E  quel  che  vedi  nell'  arco  declivo,  61 

Guglielmo  fu,  cui  quella  terra  plora 
Che  piange  Carlo  e  Federico  vivo. 

Ora  conosce  come  s'  innamora  64 

Lo  ciel  del  giusto  rege,  ed  al  sembiante 
Del  suo  fulgore  il  fa  vedere  ancora. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  203 

Chi  crederebbe  giu  nel  mondo  errante,  67 

Che  Rifeo  Troiano  in  questo  tondo 

Fosse  la  quinta  delle  luci  sante? 
Ora  conosce  assai  di  quel  che  il  mondo         70 

Veder  non  puo  della  divina  grazia, 

Benche  sua  vista  non  discerna  il  fondo.* 

This  passage  is  remarkable  for  the  repetition  of  the  words: 
Ora  conosce,  which  begin  the  first  terzina  and  every  second 
terzina  thereafter.  This  symmetrical  repetition  points  to 
the  cryptographic  contents  of  the  passage.  Consider  the  fol- 
lowing marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of  all  the  terzine 
not  beginning  with  Ora  conosce: 

40       [oRA  conosce] 
43       D 

46         [ORA    conosce] 

49       E 

52  [ORA    conosce] 

55  LA 

58  [ORA    conosce] 

61  E 

64  [ORA    conosce] 

67        C 

70         [ORA    conosce] 

Read:  cela  ed 

The  passage  conceals  Dante  in  several  interior  sequences 
spelling  his  name: 

48  di  questa  Dolce  vita  e  dell'opposta 

49  e  quel   che  seguE  in  la  circonferenza 

50  di  che   ragiono  per  I'Arco  superno 

51  morte   indugio  per  vera  peniTenza 

52  ora  conosce  che   il  giudizio  eterNo 

53  non  si   trasmuta  quANdo  DEgno  preco 

54  fa  crastino   lAggiu  dell'oDierno 

55  I'alTro  che  segue  con  le  leggi  E  meco 

56  sotto  buona  intenzion  che   fe  mal   frutTo 

Read  d  of  dolce,  48;  second  e  of  segue,  49;  a  of  arco,  50; 
T  o{  penitenza,  51;  n  o(  eterno,  52:   dante. 


204      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Read  n  of  eterno,  52;  de  of  degno,  53;  a  of  laggiu^  54;  t  of 

altro^  55:    DANTE. 

Read  an  of  quando^  53;  d  of  odierno^  54;  e  following  leggi^ 
55;  second  t  oijrutto^  56:   dante. 

Note  that  the  first  and  the  second  of  these  three  sequences 
key  on  the  n  of  eterno. 

These  signatures  are  sufficient  to  prove  that  Dante  is 
referring  to  himself  in  the  words  of  the  eagle  in  this  passage. 
Having  already  shown  that  he  refers  to  himself  in  the  other 
utterance  of  the  eagle,  the  passage  containing  the  acrostic 
vel,  and  in  the  writing  of  the  spirits  who  form  the  eagle, 
the  passage  containing  dil,  I  will  now  show  that  he  defin- 
itely takes  the  eagle  itself  as  his  symbolic  guise.  The  proof 
that  I  have  to  offer  is  to  be  found  in  the  names  of  the  spirits 
who  form  the  eye  and  eyebrow  of  the  eagle.  These  spirits 
are  David,  Traiano,  Ezechia,  Costantino,  Guglielmo,  and 
Rifeo.  Consider  in  these  names  the  following  initial  and 
contiguous  letters: 

DAVID 

traian 

E 

COS 
GU 
RI 

Read:  riguardavi  cosi  dante 

The  head  of  the  eagle  is  in  profile,  so  that  only  one  eye  is 
visible.  The  pupil  of  the  eye  is  formed  by  the  spirit  of 
David.  But  like  Aristotle  among  the  philosophers  in  Inf. 
iv,  David  is  not  mentioned  by  name.  He  is  indicated  as 
//  cantor  dello  spirito  santo^  line  38,  and  the  anonymous 
allusion  to  David  in  this  phrase  is  capable  of  being  considered 
an  allusion  to  Dante  himself.  The  spirito  santo  is  the  name 
of  the  mother  in  the  divine  Trinity;  and  as  Dante  is  the 
singer  of  the  divine  mother,  the  phrase,  il  cantor  dello  spirito 
santo,  applies  as  well  to  him  as  to  David.  Moreover,  the 
analogies  between  David  as  a  name  and  Dante's  cryptic  num- 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  205 

ber,  515,  in  vid,  plus  his  initials  d.a.,  can  hardly  have  been 
neglected  by  Dante;  in  his  search  for  analogies  everywhere 
it  is  highly  probable  that  he  saw  the  possibilities  in  da  vid  for 
suggesting:  d.a:  vid. 

In  the  light  of  this  identification  of  the  eagle  as  a  guise  of 
Dante,  it  becomes  evident  that  Dante  has  a  double  meaning 
when  he  says,  Par.  xix.  11-12,  that  he  heard  the  eagle  utter 

nella  voce  ed  'lo'  e  'Mio,' 
Quand'  era  nel  concetto  'Noi'  e  'Nostro.' 

The  eagle  is  composed  of  many  spirits,  yet  in  its  voice  it 
said,  "I"  and  "my",  as  if  it  were  one  spirit;  such  is  the  patent 
meaning  of  the  lines.  But  it  is  possible  to  understand 
Dante  as  saying  here  that  the  eagle  uttered  in  its  voice: 
ED  10,  the  cryptographic  designation  of  Dante  himself,  and 
said  "I"  and  "my"  as  if  speaking  for  Dante. 

With  the  identity  of  Dante  and  the  eagle  thus  established, 
there  remains  to  be  explained  the  symbolism  of  the  eagle  as 
transformed  successively  from  a  fleur-de-lys  and  an  m. 
This  symbolism  has  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  explained 
satisfactorily;  certainly  it  is  not  sufficient  to  associate  the 
lily  with  the  armorial  device  of  Florence  and  the  eagle  with 
the  emblem  of  the  empire.  These  associations,  which  are 
probable  enough,  are  the  mere  surface  symbolism  of  the 
transformations. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  letter  m  appears  in  connection 
with  the  eagle  in  three  forms:  first,  as  the  letter;  second,  as 
the  lily;  and  third,  as  the  eagle.  These  three  forms  of  the 
letter  represent  the  three  persons  of  the  family  as  a  trinity 
analogous  to  the  Trinity  of  the  Christian  Godhead. 

The  letter  m  is  in  itself,  in  the  first  place,  the  symbol  of 
MAN.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  medieval  Italian  con- 
ceit that  the  word  for  man,  omo,  is  written  on  the  human 
face.  The  m  of  this  spelling  is  formed  by  the  line  of  the  nose 
and  the  outlines  of  the  cheeks,  and  the  two  o's  are  formed 
by  the  eyes.  The  three  letters  are  supposed  to  be  visible 
in  the  letter  m  alone,  in  a  form  of  the  m  which  suggests  the 
two  o's  as  made  on  each  side  of  the  central  line  of  the  m 


2o6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

by  the  spaces  enclosed  by  the  central  line  and  the  outlines 
of  the  letter. 

Such  a  form  of  the  letter  m  which  gives  in  itself  the  two 
o's  appears  in  the  human  face  when  the  eye  sockets,  which 
form  the  two  o's,  are  enlarged,  as  Dante  tells  us  they  were  in 
the  passage  in  which  he  refers  to  the  very  conceit  in  ques- 
tion. Let  me  quote  the  passage,  as  it  is  important  for  an 
aspect  of  the  symbolism  of  the  eagle  which  I  shall  have  to 
develop  later.  Dante  is  viewing  in  Purgatory  the  souls  of  the 
gluttonous,  who  are  undergoing  a  penitential  fast.  He  says, 
Purg.  xxiii.  22-33: 

Negli  occhi  era  ciascuna  oscura  e  cava,     22 
Pallida  nella  faccia,  e  tanto  scema, 
Che  dair  ossa  la  pelle  s'  informava. 

Non  credo  che  cosi  a  buccia  estrema         25 
Eresitone  fosse  fatto  secco 
Per  digiunar,  quando  piu  n'  ebbe  tema. 

lo  dicea  fra  me  stesso  pensando:  'Ecco     28 
La  gente  che  perde  Jerusalemme, 
Quando  Maria  nel  figlio  die'  di  becco.' 

Parean  1'  occhiaie  anella  senza  gemme.      31 
Chi  nel  viso  degli  uomini  legge  omo, 
Ben  avria  quivi  conosciuto  1'  emme. 

This  passage  establishes  Dante's  recognition  of  the 
cryptographic  conceit  that  the  human  face  spells  omo  by  a 
form  of  the  letter  m  which  supplies  of  itself  the  two  o's,  and 
that  the  letter  m  in  itself,  accordingly,  represents  omo.  The 
same  use  of  the  letter  m  has  appeared  in  our  interpretation 
of  the  passage  containing  the  acrostic  vel,  Par.  xix.  129 
(see  pp.  163-4). 

Dante's  identification  of  himself,  as  typical,  with  man- 
kind is  expressed  in  his  cryptography  by  a  punning  use  of 
the  letter  m  as  representing  mankind.  The  spelled  form  of 
M  is  emme^  and  in  acrostics  and  in  his  use  of  the  isolated  letter 
Dante  seems  to  suggest  a  punning  use  oi  emme  as  e  me. 

Now  man^  as  a  generic  term,  appears  in  the  original  family 
unit  in  three  forms,  as  father,  mother,  and  son.  The 
cryptographic  use  of  m  in  the  transformation  of  the  m  into  a 


SYMBOLIC    GUISES  207 

lily  and  an  eagle  will  show,  accordingly,  three  forms  of  the 
M  to  correspond  with  the  three  persons  of  the  family. 

The  M  as  it  first  appears  is  the  mother.  This  m,  as  will 
be  remembered,  is  mentioned,  Par.  xviii.  93,  as  the  last 
letter  of  the  Latin  terram^  which  is  an  anagram,  with  a  re- 
dundant R,  for  MATER.  This  anagrammatic  reading  and 
the  fact  that  the  other  two  forms  of  the  m,  the  lily  and  the 
eagle,  spring  from  the  m,  establish  the  m  as  a  symbol  of  the 
mother. 

The  three  forms  of  the  letter,  as  m,  lily,  and  eagle  appear 
in  the  following  cut  from  Toynbee's  Dante  Dictionary . 


The  lily  is  formed  by  a  sprout  from  the  central  stem  of  the 
M.  This  lily  form  was  recognized  in  medieval  symbolism 
as  phallic.  As  phallic,  it  represents  the  male,  and  as  a 
sprout  from  the  maternal  m,  the  son. 

The  eagle  is  formed  by  the  addition  of  a  head  to  the  lily- 
like sprout  of  the  m.  The  eagle,  as  the  emblem  of  the  empire 
and  the  bird  of  Jove,  is  a  paternal  symbol.  As  being 
formed  by  the  addition  of  a  head  to  the  other  two  forms  of 
the  M,  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  head  of  the  family  group 
which  the  three  forms  of  the  m  represent. 

The  three  persons  of  the  family  trinity,  as  thus  represented 
respectively  by  a  form  of  the  letter  m,  are  represented  as 
identical  in  the  sense  that  they  are  formed  from  one  sub- 
stance, the  letter  m  which  appears  in  each  of  them.  This 
method  of  representing  the  identity  of  the  three  persons  of 
the  family  by  symbols  of  the  three  persons  in  which  the 
symbols  are  formed  of  the  same  substance  has  appeared  in 
the  anagrammatic  maro,  roma,  and  amor,  which  we  have 
already  examined.  These  words,  which,  as  it  will  be  remem- 


2o8      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

bered,  represent  respectively  father,  mother,  and  son,  are 
formed  of  identically  the  same  letters.  This  identity  of  the 
three  persons  is  expressly  postulated  by  Dante  for  the  divine 
Trinity,  which,  as  he  says  Purg.  iii.  36: 

tiene  una  sustanzia  in  tre  persone. 

With  the  family  trinity  of  father,  mother,  and  son  thus 
apparent  in  the  three  forms  of  the  letter  m,  it  remains  to 
show  the  symbolism  of  the  son  reborn  which  Dante  develops 
in  connection  with  the  divine  eagle.  This  symbolism  of  the 
son  reborn  appears  in  what  Dante  says  of  the  utterance  of  the 
eagle.  Par.  xx.  22-29: 

E  come  suono  al  coUo  della  cetra  22 

Prende  sua  forma,  e  si  come  al  pertugio 

Della  sampogna  vento  che  penetra, 
Cosi,  rimosso  d'aspettare  indugio,  25 

Quel  mormorar  dell'  aquila  salissi 

Su  per  lo  coUo,  come  losse  bugio. 
Fecesi  voce  quivi,  e  quindi  uscissi  28 

Per  lo  suo  becco  in  forma  di  parole, 

The  sound  is  to  be  understood,  in  the  symbolism  of  this 
passage,  as  ejaculated  from  the  phallic  neck  in  the  form  of 
the  divine  Word,  the  logos  which  in  the  Christian  story  of 
rebirth  is  Christ:  "the  Word  was  made  flesh." — John  i,  14. 

This  symbolism  of  rebirth  is  repeated  in  connection  with 
the  eagle  in  the  allusions  to  the  falcon,  the  stork,  and  the 
lark.  Those  allusions  will  have  to  be  examined  in  detail, 
as  they  are  profoundly  significant  of  the  symbolism  not  only 
of  the  transmutations  of  the  m  but  of  the  entire  Divina 
Commedia.  When  the  eagle,  in  the  beginning  of  Par.  xix, 
begins  to  speak,  it  does  so  with  outstretched  wings,  as  eagle. 
Then,  Par.  xix.  34,  in  a  pause  between  its  first  and  its 
second  utterance,  the  eagle  becomes 

quasi  falcone  ch'  esce  del  cappello. 
And  in  a  second  pause  in  its  utterance  the  eagle,  which  has 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  209 

previously  become  like  a  falcon,  becomes  like  a  mother 
stork  that  circles  about  her  nest  after  she  has  fed  her  young; 
and  Dante  himself  becomes,  as  he  develops  the  figure,  like 
the  young  stork  who  has  just  been  fed.  Par.  xix.  91-96. 
x-^nd  when,  after  a  third  pause,  the  eagle  speaks  for  the  last 
time,  it  becomes.  Par.  xx.  73: 

quale  allodetta  che  in  acre  si  spazia. 

The  eagle,  along  with  the  other  birds  to  which  it  is  likened, 
forms,  then,  the  following  group:  eagle,  falcon,  stork  with 
its  young,  and  lark.  These  four  birds  are  used  by  Dante 
to  suggest  the  trinity  of  the  family,  the  father,  mother,  and 
son,  along  with  the  son  reborn. 

The  father  symbolism  of  the  eagle  ejaculating  the  divine 
Word,  the  logoSy  or  son,  has  already  been  pointed  out.  And 
the  singing  lark,  accordingly,  to  which  the  eagle  is  likened, 
corresponds  to  the  divine  word,  or  son,  which  the  eagle,  as 
father,  utters.  With  the  eagle  and  lark  thus  accounted 
for,  the  falcon  and  the  stork  remain  as  the  symbols  of  the 
mother  in  the  double  aspect  of  the  divine  mother  to  which  I 
have  already  frequently  alluded. 

Let  us  examine  first  the  falcon  as  the  symbol  of  the  in- 
cestuous mother  through  whom  the  divine  son  is  to  be 
reborn,  just  as  the  divine  Christ  was  reborn  on  earth  as  man 
through  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  key  to  the  mother  symbolism 
of  the  falcon  is  to  be  found  in  the  passage  already  quoted  in 
connection  with  the  m  as  written  in  the  faces  of  men,  Purg. 
xxiii.  22-33.  ^^  this  passage,  the  reader  will  remember, 
Dante  mistook  the  emaciated  souls  to  be 

La  gente  che  perd^  Jerusalemme, 
Quando  Maria  nel  figlio  die'  di  becco. 

The  apparent  allusion  here  is  to  an  incident  in  the  siege  ot 
Jerusalem.  According  to  Josephus,  the  inhabitants  of  Jeru- 
salem became  so  reduced  to  starvation  during  this  siege  that 
a  certain  Maria  killed  her  own  son  and  ate  his  flesh.  And 
when  Dante  says  here  that  Maria  nel  figlio  die'  di  beccoy 
he  is  likening  the  mother  of  the  child  to  a  bird  of  prey. 


2IO      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Now  Dante's  allusion  to  the  Maria  of  this  incident  is 
simply  a  screen;  he  is  alluding,  in  the  last  analysis,  to  the 
Virgin  Mary,  who  took  her  divine  son  into  her  womb  ex- 
actly as  the  other  Maria  swallowed  her  son.  In  other  words, 
the  swallowing  of  the  son  is  here  used  as  a  symbol  of  incestu- 
ous intercourse.  Swallowing  as  a  symbol  of  intercourse  is 
common  in  myth  and  folklore,  as  witness  the  primitive  belief 
in  impregnation  by  eating.  The  incestuous  character  of 
the  eating  in  this  incident  is  emphasized  by  Dante  himself 
in  the  allusion  to  Erysicthon,  line  26,  who  was  punished,  on 
account  of  his  sacrilege  toward  the  mother  goddess  Ceres, 
with  insatiable  hunger.  Since  Ceres  was  also  the  goddess 
of  the  harvests  of  the  earth,  his  hunger  is  a  symbol  of  his 
hunger  for  her.  A  further  indication  by  Dante  of  the 
incestuous  character  of  the  act  of  eating  the  son  in  this 
passage  appears  in  the  allusion,  line  34,  to  the  pomoy  the 
apple  symbolizing  the  apple  in  the  garden  of  Eden.  The  eat- 
ing of  the  apple  in  the  garden  of  Eden  symbolizes,  of  course,  a 
sexual  transgression,  and  this  transgression,  as  I  shall  show 
in  Chapter  VIII,  seems  to  have  been  understood  as  incestu- 
ous. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  Dante  likens  the  Maria  who  eats 
her  own  son — and  is  therefore  incestuous — to  a  bird  of  prey, 
let  us  return  now  to  the  falcon  mentioned  in  Par.  xix.  The 
falcon  is  essentially,  as  a  reference  to  any  history  of  falconry 
will  show,  the  bird  that  preys  upon  the  lark.  It  was  speci- 
ally trained  to  hunt  the  lark  by  the  falconers  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  Dante  here  mentions  the  falcon,  to  be  associated 
with  the  lark  which  is  mentioned  later,  as  suggesting  the  in- 
cestuous   mother    as    preying    and    the    incestuous    son    as 

The  similitude  of  the  eagle  to  the  falcon  is  succeeded  by 
the  similitude  of  the  eagle  to  the  stork,  which  is  obviously 
maternal  in  its  circling  about  the  nest  and  feeding  its  young, 
the  young  stork  to  which  Dante  likens  himself.  The  in- 
cestuous mother,  represented  by  the  falcon,  is  thus  re- 
placed by  the  fostering  mother  represented  by  the  stork; 
and  the  lark,  representing  the  incestuous  son,  is  replaced 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  211 

by  the  young  stork  representing  the  incestuous  son  reborn. 
Thus  the  symbolism  of  the  transformations  of  the  m,  as 
suggesting  father,  mother,  and  son  in  a  family  trinity, 
expresses  simultaneously  the  rebirth  of  the  son,  who  thus 
adds  a  fourth  figure  to  the  family  exactly  as  Christ  as  man 
adds  a  fourth  figure  to  the  Divine  Trinity. 


CHRIST 

There  have  been  so  many  indications,  in  the  cryptograms 
which  we  have  already  examined,  of  Dante's  identification  of 
himself  with  Christ  in  the  Divina  Commedia,  that  it  may  not 
be  necessary  to  give  further  proof  of  the  identification.  In 
Purg.  xxxiii,  however,  immediately  after  the  prophecy  of  the 
515,  there  is  another  515  in  connection  with  a  reference  to  the 
coming  of  Christ  which  quite  definitely  connects  Dante,  as  a 
515,  with  Christ.  After  Beatrice  has  made  the  prophecy 
she  continues,  Purg.  xxxiii.  S'^~^3- 

Tu  nota;  e  si  come  da  me  son  porta,  52 

Cosi  queste  parole  segna  ai  vivi 

Del  viver  ch'  h  un  correre  alia  morte; 
Ed  abbi  a  mente,  quando  tu  le  scrivi,  55 

Di  non  celar  qua!  hai  vista  la  pianta, 

Ch'  e  or  due  volte  dirubata  quivi. 
Qualunque  ruba  quella  o  quella  schianta,  58 

Con  bestemmia  di  fatto  offende  a  Die, 

Che  solo  air  uso  suo  la  creo  santa. 
Per  morder  quella,  in  pena  ed  in  disio  61 

Cinquemili'  anni  e  piu  1'  anima  prima 

Bramd  Colui  che  il  morso  in  se  punio. 

The  cinquemili'  anni  e  piUy  line  62,  which  are  said  to  have 
elapsed  between  the  fall  of  Adam  and  the  coming  of  Christ, 
suggest  the  five  hundred  connected  with  the  dvx  as  again 
connected  with  rebirth.  To  complete  the  mystic  515  in 
this  passage  there  is  the  concealed  5  in  the  mention  of  D/o, 
line  59,  and  the  concealed  10  in  the  allusion  to  Christ,  line  63, 
The  D  of  Dio  conceals  a  5,  since  the  d,  as  500,  may  be  re- 


212      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

duced  to  five  by  disregarding  the  zeros.  The  allusion  to 
Christ  gives  a  ten,  and  so  a  one.  The  cinquemili  may  be 
reduced  to  5  by  disregarding,  as  usual,  the  zeros.  This  515, 
coming  as  it  does  immediately  after  the  515  of  the  prophecy, 
serves  once  more  to  identify  Dante  with  Christ. 

In  connection  with  the  reference  to  the  divine  Trinity, 
Par.  XV.  46-57,  there  is  another  concealed  515  which  again 
shows  Dante  as  identifying  himself,  if  not  here  with  Christ, 
with  God.     The  passage  reads  as  follows: 

La  prima  cosa  che  per  me  s'  intese,  46 

'Benedetto  sie  tu,'  fu,  'Trino  ed  Uno, 
Che  nel  mio  seme  sei  tanto  cortese.' 

E  seguitd:  'Grato  e  lontan  digiuno,  49 

Tratto  leggendo  nel  magno  volume 
U'  non  si  muta  mai  bianco  ne  bruno, 

Soluto  hai,  figlio,  dentro  a  questo  lume     52 
In  ch'  io  ti  parlo,  mercc  di  colei 
Ch'  air  alto  volo  ti  vesti  le  piume. 

Tu  credi  che  a  me  tuo  pensier  mei  55 

Da  quel  ch'  h  primo,  cosi  come  raia 
Dair  un,  se  si  conosce,  il  cinque  e  il  sei. 

The  trino  ed  uno^  line  47,  added  together  as  a  three  and 
one,  make  4,  which  may  be  transmuted  into  the  fourth 
letter  of  the  alphabet,  or  d.  This  d  is  then  to  be  taken  as 
500.  The  concealed  i  appears  in  primoy  line  56,  and  the 
five  is  cinque  in  line  57.  There  thus  appears  515,  with  a  six 
left  over,  line  57.  But  notice  that  the  words  expressing  the 
six,  e  il  sei^  may  be  taken  in  a  double  sense  as  "xAnd  thou  art 
he."  Thus  the  cryptogram  says  in  effect:  "515 — and  thou 
art  he." 

LUCIFER 

Inasmuch  as  Dante  is  both  human  and  divine,  both  evil 
and  good,  he  identifies  himself  not  only  with  Christ  but  also 
with  Lucifer,  the  fallen  angel  who  is 

Lo  imperador  del  doloroso  regno. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  213 

TKq  appearance  of  Lucifer  is  described  in  the  following  pass- 
age, Inf.  xxxiv.  34-60: 

S'  ei  fu  si  bel  com'  egli  e  ora  brutto,  34 

E  contra  il  suo  Fattore  alzo  le  ciglia, 

Ben  dee  da  lui  procedere  ogni  lutto. 
O  quanto  parve  a  me  gran  maraviglia,  37 

Quando  vidi  tre  facce  alia  sua  testa! 

L'  una  dinanzi,  e  quella  era  vermiglia; 
L'  altre  eran  due,  che  s'  aggiungieno  a  questa        40 

Sopr'  esso  il  mezzo  di  ciascuna  spalla, 

E  si  giungieno  al  loco  della  cresta; 
E  la  destra  parea  tra  bianca  e  gialla;  43 

La  sinistra  a  vedere  era  tal,  quali 

Vengon  di  la,  onde  il  Nilo  s'  avvalla. 
Sotto  ciascuna  uscivan  due  grandi  ali,  46 

Quanto  si  convenia  a  tanto  uccello; 

Vele  di  mar  non  vid'  io  mai  cotali. 
Non  avean  penne,  ma  di  vipistrello  49 

Era  lor  modo;  e  quelle  svolazzava, 

Si  che  tre  venti  si  movean  da  ello. 
Quindi  Cocito  tutto  s'  aggelava:  52 

Con  sei  occhi  piangeva,  e  per  tre  menti 

Gocciava  il  pianto  e  sanguinosa  bava. 
Da  ogni  bocca  dirompea  coi  denti  55 

Un  peccatore,  a  guisa  di  maciulla, 

Si  che  tre  ne  facea  cosi  dolenti. 
A  quel  dinanzi  il  mordere  era  nulla  58 

Verso  il  graffiar,  che  tal  volta  la  schiena 

Rimanea  della  pelle  tutta  brulla. 

Notice  first,  in  connection  with  this  passage,  the  initials 
of  the  first  four  terzine,  in  which  the  three  faces  of  Lucifer 
are  described: 

34       s 
37       o 

40  L 

43        E 
Read  sole 

I  will  return  to  the  significance  of  this  reading,  which  is 
extremely  important.     But  I  wish  to  show  first  the  reading 


214      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

on  the  entire  passage.     Consider,  then,  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  nine  terzine  the  following  marginal  letters: 


34 

SE 

37 

0 

40 

L 

43 

E 

46 

SOT 

49 

NGN 

52 

QUI 

55 

D 

58 

A 

Read:  sole:  sono  qui  dante 

On    the    third    terzina    consider    the    following   marginal 
letters,  lines  40-42: 


40 

L 

41 

so 

42 

E 

Read:  sole 

The  repetition  of  sole  in  the  acrostic  of  this  terzina  and  in 
the  acrostic  of  the  four  terzine  shows  the  emphasis  that  Dante 
places  on  the  sun  symbolism  of  the  passage. 

On  the  fourth  terzina,  lines  43-45,  consider  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

43  E 

44  L 

45  V 

Read:  vel 

This  VEL  calls  attention  to  the  whole  passage  as  a  veil  for 
the  cryptographic  readings  which  we  have  found  and  for 
the  symbolism  which  must  now  be  developed. 

The  acrostic  sole,  which  appears  twice  in  the  four  terzine 
describing  Lucifer,  is  of  the  highest  importance  for  the 
symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia  in  identifying  the  sun 
as  the  symbol  of  Lucifer.  Throughout  the  Divina  Com- 
media the  sun  is  constantly  used  as  the  symbol  of  God,  of 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  215 

Christ,  and  of  Dante;  that  it  should  now  appear  as  the 
symbol  of  Lucifer  implies  the  essential  identity  of  all  these 
persons. 

It  is  not  alone  in  the  Divina  Commedia  that  the  sun  is  the 
symbol  of  Lucifer;  in  Isaiah  xiv.  12-15,  is  the  following 
passage: 

"How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O  Lucifer,  son  of  the 
morning!  how  art  thou  cut  down  to  the  ground,  which  didst 
weaken  the  nations! 

"For  thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart,  I  will  ascend  into 
heaven,  I  will  exalt  my  throne  above  the  stars  of  God:  I 
will  sit  also  upon  the  mount  of  the  congregation,  in  the  sides 
of  the  north: 

"I  will  ascend  above  the  heights  of  the  clouds;  I  will  be 
like  the  most  High. 

"Yet  thou  shalt  be  brought  down  to  hell,  to  the  sides  of 
the  pit." 

This  passage  must  at  once  be  recognized  as  an  expression 
of  Lucifer  in  terms  of  the  sun  myth,  exactly  as  the  story  of 
Christ  is  expressed  in  terms  of  the  sun  myth.  Christ  is  the 
sun  above  the  horizon,  the  sun  that  makes  the  journey  of  the 
sky  from  east  to  west;  Lucifer  is  the  sunken  sun,  the  sun 
that  makes  the  journey  of  the  underworld  in  the  night, 
from  west  to  east;  and  they  are  both  the  same  sun.  And 
Dante,  whose  downward  and  upward  journey  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  precisely  synchronized  with  the  journey  of  the 
sun,  has  likewise  the  sun  for  his  symbol  and  is  likewise 
identified  with  Christ  on  the  one  hand  and  Lucifer  on  the 
other.  The  identity  of  Christ  and  Lucifer  accords  with  the 
profound  precept  that  everything  is  its  own  opposite. 
Dante,  therefore,  who  by  virtue  of  his  divine  nature  is  all 
that  is  good,  is  by  virtue  of  his  human  nature  all  that  is  evil. 
For  Dante  as  elios,  Greek  for  sun,  see  page  349. 

Now  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Lucifer,  with  his  three 
faces  which  represent  in  distorted  and  discolored  form  the 
three  persons  of  the  divine  Trinity,  is  a  triadic  symbol  of 
the  three  members  of  the  family,  father,  mother,  and  son — 
a  triadic  symbol  which  represents  the  three  as  united  to- 


2i6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

gether.  The  situation,  as  we  have  already  seen,  in  which 
the  three  members  of  the  family  may  be  considered  to  be  so 
united  as  to  form,  not  three  beings,  but  a  single  being,  is  in 
the  act  of  union  by  which  the  father  begets  the  son  in  the 
body  of  the  mother:  the  three  in  this  situation  are  physically 
united.  In  the  case  of  the  incestuous  son  who  accomplishes 
his  own  rebirth,  the  father  and  the  son  are  identical,  since  the 
son,  in  begetting  himself,  is  the  father  of  himself.  The  sin 
for  which  the  incestuous  son  is  punished  and  through  which, 
in  spite  of  the  punishment,  he  accomplishes  his  rebirth,  is  in 
thus  usurping  the  father's  place.  This  sin  is  the  sin  of  Luci- 
fer; it  is  the  superho  strupo  for  which  he  was  cast  from 
Heaven;  and  it  is  in  the  image  of  his  sin  that  he  is  here 
represented.  As  a  triad  Lucifer  is  represented  simultane- 
ously with  his  mother,  either  as  in  incestuous  union  with  her 
or  as  in  her  womb,  and  with  his  father,  in  the  sense  of  re- 
placing him. 

Now  if  Lucifer,  as  I  have  indicated  in  the  preceding  pages, 
is  to  be  understood  as  a  guise  of  Dante,  he  must  be  under- 
stood to  represent  Dante,  as  son,  in  the  same  peculiar 
relation  to  father  and  mother  in  which  he  stands  himself — 
in  a  relation,  in  other  words,  which  represents  Dante  as  the 
incestuous  son  who  accomplishes  his  rebirth  in  disobedience 
to  the  divine  command.  As  symbolized  in  the  triadic  Luci- 
fer, Dante,  as  son,  is  represented  as  united  with  father  and 
mother  in  the  sense  of  being  identified  with  them.  This 
idea  of  the  essential  identity  of  the  three  members  of  the 
family  group  is  expressed  by  Dante  in  his  representation  of 
them,  in  InJ.  i,  as  leone,  lupa,  and  lonza\  distinct  as  they 
are  as  three  separate  animals,  they  are  identical  in  the 
animal  nature  which  they  possess  in  common. 

A  still  clearer  symbol  of  the  identity  of  the  three  mem- 
bers of  the  family  group  appears  in  Dante's  use.  Par.  ii, 
of  the  three  mirrors.  These  three  mirrors,  in  connection 
with  the  light  which  they  equally  reflect  and  which  makes 
with  them  a  group  of  four,  must  be  understood,  it  seems 
to  me,  as  the  counterpart  of  the  leone^  the  lupa^  and  the 
lonza^  in  connection  with  the  Veltro^  in  InJ.  i ;   and  of  the 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  217 

quattro  stelle 
Non  viste  mai  fuor  che  alia  prima  gente, 

in  Purg.  i.  The  four  of  these  groups  represent  the  father, 
mother,  son,  and  son  reborn;  and  the  three  mirrors,  as 
equally  reflecting  the  light  as  the  symbol  of  the  reborn  son, 
symbolize  the  essential  community  of  the  original  three  in  the 
reproduction  (reflection)  of  the  fourth. 

Analogous  to  Lucifer  and  to  the  divine  Trinity  as  triadic 
symbols  of  the  united  family,  and  so  of  Dante  himself  as  son 
in  relation  to  father  and  mother,  are  the  three-headed  mon- 
ster Cerberus,  and  Geryon,  the  monster  with  three  bodies. 
The  father  symbolism  of  these  fiends  appears  in  the  fact 
that  they  represent  the  ruling  power  of 

Lo  imperador  del  doloroso  regno. 

Their  symbolism  as  the  son  appears  from  the  fact  that  they 
are  themselves  the  prisoners  as  well  as  the  rulers  of  Hell. 
The  mother  symbolism  is  indicated  for  Cerberus  in  his 
ravenous  hunger,  like  the  sex-hunger  of  the  lupa;  in  his 
huge  belly,  like  the  swelling  in  pregnancy;  and  by  his  being 
appeased  by  handfuls  of  earth  (semen)  thrown  down  his 
throats.  His  throats  have  the  same  female  symbolism 
which  we  shall  find  in  the  next  chapter  for  the  gate  of  Hell. 
The  mother  symbolism  of  Geryon  is  indicated  in  his  dragon- 
like shape,  the  dragon  being  a  common  mother  symbol,  and 
in  his  carrying  Dante,  as  in  pregnancy,  from  one  stage  of 
his  journey  to  another.  The  mother  symbolism  of  the  act 
of  carrying  Dante  appears  again  in  the  figure  of  Lucia,  who 
carries  him  up  the  slope  of  Purgatory  just  as  Geryon  carries 
him  down  into  the  abyss  of  Hell.  The  description  of  the 
posture  of  Geryon  in  swimming,  as  like  that  of  a  diver 

Che  in  su  si  stende,  e  da  pie  si  rattrappa, 

must  be  understood  as  an  allusion  to  the  posture  in  coitus. 

The  symbolism  may  be  suggested  in  the  acrostic  on  the 
passage  including  this  line.  Inf.  xvi.  1 21-136: 


2i8      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Ei  disse  a  me:   'Tosto  verra  di  sopra  121 

Cio  ch'  io  attendo,  e  che  il  tuo  pensier  sogna 

Tosto  convien  ch'  al  tuo  viso  si  scopra.' 
Sempre  a  quel  ver  ch'  ha  faccia  di  menzogna     124 

De'  r  uom  chiuder  le  labbra  finch'  ei  puote, 

Pero  che  senza  colpa  fa  vergogna; 
Ma  qui  tacer  nol  posso:   e  per  le  note  127 

Di  questa  commedia,  lettor,  ti  giuro, 

S'  elle  non  sien  di  lunga  grazia  vote, 
Ch'  io  vidi  per  quell'  aer  grosso  e  scuro  130 

Venir  notando  una  figura  in  suso, 

Maravigliosa  ad  ogni  cor  sicuro, 
Si  come  torna  colui  che  va  giuso  133 

Talora  a  solver  1'  ancora  ch'  aggrappa 

O  scoglio  od  altro  che  nel  mare  e  chiuso, 
Che  in  su  si  stende,  e  da  pi^  si  rattrappa.  136 

Consider  on  the  last  line  of  the  canto  and  the  first  lines 
of  the  five  preceding  terzine  the  following  marginal  letters: 


121 

E 

124 

SE 

127 

MA 

130 

CH  ID 

133 

S 

136 

c 

Read:  esce  maschio 

It   is   in   connection   with   Geryon   that   Dante   develops 
the  enigmatic  symbolism  of  the  cord,  InJ.  xvi.  106-114: 

Io  aveva  una  corda  intorno  cinta,  106 

E  con  essa  pensai  alcuna  volta 
Prender  la  lonza  alia  pelle  dipinta. 

Poscia  che  1'  ebbi  tutta  da  me  sciolta,    109 
Si  come  il  Duca  m'  avea  comandato, 
Porsila  a  lui  aggroppata  e  ravvolta. 

Ond'  ei  si  volse  inver  Io  destro  lato,        112 
Ed  alquanto  di  lungi  dalla  sponda 
La  gittd  giuso  in  quell'  alto  burrato. 

The  meaning  of  this  passage,  which  the  commentators 
have  consistently  missed,  confirms  the  mother  symbolism  of 
Geryon's  act  of  bearing  Dante. 


SYMBOLIC   GUISES  219 

Consider  first  the  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  ter- 
zine: 

106  I 
109  p 
112      o 

Read:  pig 

pio  is  a  word  which  appears  in  the  acrostic  pig  rimasi 
in  connection  with  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  closing 
lines  of  Purgatorio. 

The  cord  referred  to  here  is  sometimes  explained  as  the 
cord  worn  by  the  Franciscans,  whose  order,  according  to 
Buti,  Dante  is  said  to  have  joined  in  his  youth  and  to  have 
quitted  before  the  end  of  his  novitiate.  But  whether  the 
testimony  of  Buti  be  accepted  or  not,  the  highly  elaborated 
symbolism  of  the  cord  in  the  present  passage  can  hardly  be 
explained  as  a  mere  historical  allusion  to  Dante's  novitiate  in 
a  religious  order.  It  would  be  much  more  likely  that  if 
Dante  were  actually  referring  to  the  cord  worn  by  the 
Franciscans,  he  would  refer  to  it  for  the  sake  of  its  original 
symbolism.  The  cord  worn  by  the  Franciscans  is,  as  I  sur- 
mise, a  mother  symbol  by  virtue  of  its  forming  a  circle;  and 
the  fact  that  it  is  worn  about  the  body  of  the  monk  sym- 
bolizes his  union  with  the  divine  mother. 

But  Dante's  use  of  the  cord  is  to  be  more  fully  explained, 
I  believe,  in  the  light  of  a  primitive  custom  to  which  I  have 
found  references  in  Frazer's  Golden  Bough  and  Folk-lore  in 
the  Old  Testament.  According  to  this  custom  the  umbilical 
cord  of  a  boy  is  preserved  until  the  age  at  which  he  is  initiated 
into  the  rites  of  manhood.  These  rites  symbolize  rebirth, 
and  one  of  the  ritualistic  details  consists  in  throwing  the 
umbilical  cord,  which  has  been  preserved  from  his  infancy, 
into  the  stream  or  sea.  As  the  stream  or  sea  is  a  mother 
symbol,  he  may  thus  be  supposed  to  symbolize  his  reunion 
with  his  mother  by  the  very  tie  which  had  united  them  origi- 
nally. Such  a  reunion  is,  of  course,  of  the  essence  of  the 
rites  of  rebirth.  How,  or  in  what  form,  such  a  custom  may 
have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  Dante  I  hazard  no  guess; 


220      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

I  am  confident,  however,  that  in  whatever  form  it  survived 
in  medieval  symbolism,  it  explains  the  curious  manner  in 
which  he  summons  Geryon  to  bear  him,  like  an  evil  mother, 
to  the  consummation  of  his  incestuous  rebirth. 


Chapter  VII 
THE  SEAL 


Chapter  VII 
THE  SEAL 


pEREMAS,  Latin  for  "do  thou  remove,"  is  a  word  that 
-■-  has  appeared  several  times  in  the  cryptographic  readings 
presented  in  the  previous  chapters.  The  cryptographic  use 
that  Dante  makes  of  this  word  is  so  complicated  that  it  will 
now  have  to  be  examined  in  detail. 

The  first  instance  of  peremas  to  which  I  called  attention 
appears  in  the  acrostic  on  the  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
lines  of  the  first  four  terzine  of  the  first  canto  of  Purgatorio 
(see  p.  27).  The  importance  of  the  word  is  indicated  by  the 
prominence  of  this  position.  Let  me  show  this  acrostic  again: 

I  PER 

4        E 

7         MA 

10       S 

Read:  peremas 

As  I  pointed  out,  the  acrostic  on  these  lines  is  a  double 
acrostic,  for  in  addition  to  the  reading:  peremas,  there  is 
also  on  the  initials  of  the  four  lines  in  question  the  acrostic: 

SPEM. 

Spem  is  thus  formed  of  four  letters  of  the  seven  letters  of 
PEREMAS,  and  the  remaining  three,  which  are  e,  r,  and  a, 
may  be  considered  as  spelling  era.  It  thus  appears  that 
PEREMAS  may  be  transmuted  as  an  anagram  into  era  spem. 

There  is  another  transformation  of  peremas  which  appears 
very  clearly  in  the  first  four  terzine  oi  Par.  viii: 

[  223  1 


224      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Solea  creder  lo  mondo  in  suo  periclo 

Che  la  Bella  Ciprigna  il  folle  amore 

Raggiasse,  volta  nel  terzo  epiciclo; 
Perche  non  pure  a  lei  facean  onore  4 

Di  sacrificio  e  di  votivo  grido 

Le  genti  antiche  nell'  antico  errore; 
Ma  Dione  onoravano  e  Cupido,  7 

Questa  per  madre  sua,  questo  per  figlio, 

E  dicean  ch'  ei  sedette  in  grembo  a  Dido; 
E  da  costei,  ond'  io  principio  piglio,  10 

Pigliavano  il  vocabol  della  Stella 

Che  il  sol  vagheggia  or  da  coppa  or  da  ciglio. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 
I         s 
4         PER 

7  MA 

8  E 

Read:  peremas 

But  notice  that  on  the  first  three  terzine  the  letters  read: 
sperma;  and  that  on  all  four  terzine  the  very  letters  which 
give:  peremas  give:  e  sperma. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  the  sense  of  the  text,  which 
treats  of  the  amorous,  and  will  note  especially  the  words: 
il  folle  amore  raggiasse^  an  expression  of  love  in  relation  to 
light  which  I  hope  this  chapter  may  make  clear.  The  terzina 
immediately  following  this  passage,  13-15,  is  very  suggestive; 
the  words:  salire  in  ella^  as  expressing  the  entrance  into  a 
female  form,  will  prove  to  be  consistent  with  the  general  sex 
symbolism  of  the  poem. 

There  is  still  another  transmutation  of  peremas  which  I 
wish  to  show  before  going  into  the  question  of  what  these 
transmutations  signify.  The  first  three  terzine  of  InJ.  iii  are 
a  unit  in  themselves,  comprising  the  inscription  over  the 
gate  of  Hell.  These  terzine  read  as  follows: 

Per  me  si  va  nella  citta  dolente, 
Per  me  si  va  nell'  eterno  dolore, 
Per  me  si  va  tra  la  perduta  gente. 


THE    SEAL  225 

Giustizia  mosse  il  mio  alto  fattore;  4 

Fecemi  la  divina  potestate, 
La  somma  sapienza  e  il  primo  amore. 

Dinanzi  a  me  non  fur  cose  create  7 

Se  non  eterne,  ed  io  eterno  duro: 
Lasciate  ogni  speranza  voi  ch'  entrate! 

Consider  on  all  the  lines  of  this  passage  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


I 

PER    ME 

SI 

VA 

2 

PER   ME 

SI 

VA 

3 

PER   ME 

SI 

VA 

4 

GIUSTI 

5 

F 

6 

LA    SO 

7 
8 

9 

DI 

SE    NO 

LA 

Read:  per  me  si  va,  per  me  si  va,  per  me  si  va. 

DANTE    SI    FA    SUO    SIGILLO 

Now  in  what  form  can  the  phrase:  per  me  si  va,  three 
times  repeated,  be  considered  as  the  seal  which  Dante  makes  ? 
The  answer  to  this  question  is  the  fact  that  the  letters  of  the 
phrase:  per  me  si  va  are  a  transmutation  of  the  letters  in 
peremas  VI.  Peremas,  the  word  which  we  have  seen  in  so 
many  cryptograms,  is  the  seal  of  Dante. 

And  just  as  the  phrase:  per  me  si  va,  may  be  transmuted 
into:  peremas  vi,  it  may  also  be  transmuted,  first,  into:  vi 
ERA  SPEM,  and,  second,  into:  vi  e  sperma. 

The  explanation  of  these  anagrammatic  transmutations 
is  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter. 

Let  us  consider  first  the  word:  spem.  Spem^  or  "hope,"  is 
one  of  the  three  theological  virtues:  faith,  hope,  and  love  (in 
the  King  James  version  of  the  English  Bible  they  are  called: 
faith,  hope,  and  charity).  These  three  virtues  correspond  to 
the  three  persons  of  the  divine  Trinity:  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost. 


226      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  correspondence  of  the  three  theological  virtues  to  the 
three  persons  of  the  Trinity  is  apparent  in  Dante's  indi- 
cation, in  the  inscription  over  the  gate  of  Hell,  of  the  Father 
as  power,  the  Son  as  wisdom,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  as  love. 
Power  is  equivalent  to  will,  wisdom  to  intellect,  and  love  to 
emotion.  Thus  expressed,  therefore,  the  three  persons  of  the 
Trinity  correspond  to  the  three  categories  of  the  mind:  will, 
intellect,  and  emotion.  To  the  father,  as  will,  corresponds 
faith;  to  the  son,  as  intellect,  corresponds  hope;  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  as  emotion,  corresponds  love. 

The  correspondence  of  faith  to  will  appears  in  the  fact 
that,  as  it  is  expressed  in  Baldwin's  Dictionary  of  Philosophy 
and  Psychology,  article  on  Faith:  "faith  .  .  .  may  be 
defined  as  the  personal  acceptance  of  something  as  true  or 
real  .  .  .  on  grounds  that,  in  whole  or  in  part^are  different 
from  those  of  theoretic  certitude.  .  .  .  The  moment  of 
will  enters  into  the  assent  of  faith    .    .    ." 

The  correspondence  of  hope  to  intellect  appears  in  the  fact 
that  hope  is  expectation  based  on  knowledge.  The  corres- 
pondence of  love  to  emotion  is  self-evident:  love  is  emotional, 
as  distinguished  from  the  voluntary  character  of  faith  and  the 
intellectual  character  of  hope. 

These  correspondences  were  generally  recognized  in 
medieval  philosophy;  and  they  are  implied  in  the  anagram- 
matic  appearance  of  spem  in  the  seal  of  Dante.  Dante  is 
taking  for  his  device  the  particular  virtue  of  the  divine  Son 
and  is  therefore  once  more  identifying  himself  with  Christ. 

With  the  relation  of  spem  to  Christ  thus  established,  it 
remains  to  establish  the  relation  of  spem  to  the  sperma 
which  appears  with  spem  in  the  acrostic  peremas,  the  seal 
of  Dante.  The  "  hope  "  of  Christ  is  hope  in  his  second  coming, 
or,  in  other  words,  in  his  rebirth.  Sperma  is  a  symbol  of 
birth,  and  it  is  to  be  considered  here,  therefore,  as  the  symbol 
of  moral  rebirth,  borrowed  from  the  biological  facts  of 
physical  birth.  Christ,  who  in  early  symbolism  is  frequently 
represented  as  phallus,  as  in  his  symbol  of  the  fish,  is  likewise 
sperma  in  the  sense  that  he  is  to  be  reborn.  In  the  appearance 
of  sperma,  therefore,  in  the  seal  of  Dante,  as  his  symbol, 


THE    SEAL  227 

Dante  is  expressing  the  idea  that  he,  like  Christ,  is  to  be 
reborn,  and  that  he  possesses  within  himself  the  means  of 
his  rebirth. 

Dante's  use  of  such  a  symbol  as  his  seal  is  not  peculiar  to 
him.  Sexual,  and,  more  particularly,  phallic  symbolism,  was 
commonly  used  in  heraldic  devices  in  the  Middle  Ages.  An 
instance  is  the  lily  of  Florence,  the  fleur-de-lys^  which  is  a 
symbol  of  the  phallic  triad. 

Let  us  now  turn  back  to  the  phrase:  per  me  si  va,  which 
appears  in  the  inscription  over  the  gate  of  Hell.  This  phrase, 
by  which  the  gate  of  Hell  is  described,  may  be  transmuted, 
as  I  have  already  shown,  into:  peremas  vi  and  vi  e  sperma. 

In  describing  the  gate  of  Hell  by  the  phrase:  per  me  si  va, 
which  says,  anagrammatically,  that  vi  e  sperma,  Dante 
indicates,  as  corresponding  to  the  male  symbolism  of  sperma, 
th.e.  female  symbolism  of  the  gate  of  Hell.  In  other  words,  the 
gate  of  Hell,  though  which  si  va,  is  the  opening  through  which 
the  sperma  passes  into  the  female  body  of  the  earth,  thence 
to  be  reborn  from  the  central  cavity  of  the  earth,  which  is  the 
womb  of  the  earth,  or  Hell  proper. 

The  symbolism  of  Hell  as  the  womb  and  of  the  gate  of  Hell 
as  vulva  is  not  confined  to  the  Divina  Commedia.  It  underlies, 
indeed,  all  primitive  and  early  Christian  ideas  of  the  various 
abodes  of  the  soul  after  death.  This  symbolism  becomes  quite 
explicit  in  the  saying  of  Tertullian:  "Woman  is  the  gate  of 
Hell."  But  it  has  never  been  recognized,  so  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  discover,  that  in  the  Divina  Commedia  the  geography 
of  Hell  is  based  on  a  precise  parallel  between  the  structure 
of  the  earth  and  the  structure  of  the  female  body.  And  this 
same  parallel,  indeed,  is  elaborated  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
in  the  structure  of  Purgatory  and  of  Heaven. 


HELL 

The  concept  of  the  earth  as  mother  earth  is  common  to  all 
peoples  in  all  ages;  the  earth  is  the  mother  of  all  the  life  that 
swarms  upon  it.  And  as  a  corollary  of  this  concept  of  the  earth 


228      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

as  mother  is  the  concept  of  the  grave,  or  of  Hell,  or  whatever 
supposed  abode  of  the  dead  is  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  as 
the  womb  of  the  earth,  from  which  man  emerges  in  birth  and 
to  which  he  returns  in  death.  The  desire  to  live  is  probably 
the  origin  of  the  belief  in  a  life  after  death,  and  this  belief 
is  rationalized  in  many  myths  which  represent  the  abode  of 
the  dead  as  the  womb  from  which  the  dead  were  born  in 
the  first  place  and  from  which  they  are  to  be  reborn. 

In  the  myths  in  which  the  abode  of  the  dead  is  symbolized 
as  the  womb  of  the  earth,  the  entrance  of  the  dead  into  the 
grave,  or  Hell,  is  constantly  symbolized  as  the  sexual  act. 
It  is  the  reunion  of  the  son  with  the  mother  in  an  act  of  incest 
which  is  to  result  in  the  rebirth  of  the  son.  This  symbolism  of 
Hell  as  the  womb,  and  of  the  entrance  of  the  soul  into  Hell, 
or  of  the  entrance  of  the  corpse  into  the  grave,  as  sexual 
union  of  mother  and  son,  is  inherent  in  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection.  Explicit  association  of  Hell  and  the  womb 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  may  be  found  in  Hans  Schmidt's  Jona. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  same  symbolism 
should  appear  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  Dante  simply 
borrowed  the  symbolism  from  earlier  pagan  and  Christian 
sources;  he  elaborated  it,  however,  with  a  precision  of  detail 
which  is  unique,  I  believe,  in  the  history  of  literature. 

The  female  structure  of  Dante's  earth,  in  the  centre  of 
which  his  Hell  is  situated,  appears  in  the  following  parallel: 

Seha  oscura^  Inf.  i.  i.  Pubic  hair. 

II  dilettoso  monte^  Inf.  i.  77.  Mons  Veneris. 

The  gate  of  Hell,  /;//.  iii.  Vulva. 

The  river  Acheron,  Inf.  iii.  78.  Bodily  streams,  seminal, 

lacteal,    urinary,    and 
fecal. 
La  proda      .      .      .      della   valle     Entrance  of  vagina. 

d'abisso  dolorosa^  Inf.  iv.  7-8. 
Z/^  j;/^/zm^rt,  by  which  the  poets  de-     Vagina. 

scend  from  t\\Q. proda,  Inf.  iv.  22. 
Un   nobile  castello,  where    there     Clitoris. 

was  lumiera.  Inf.  iv.  108. 


THE   SEAL  229 

Descent  from  the  first  circle  to     Continuation  of  vagina. 

the  second  circle,  /;//.  v.  1-2. 
L'entrata  to  the  city  of  Dis,  Inf.     Cervix. 

viii.  81. 
The  city  of  Dis,  which   Dante     Uterus. 

enters,  Inf.  ix.  106. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  course  of  Dante's  journey  through 
this  female  structure. 

In  connection  with  the  selva  oscura^  Inf.  i.  2,  is  to  be  noticed 
the  lago  del  cor ^  Inf.  \.  20.  The  seha  oscura  is  the  place  where 
Dante,  in  the  poem,  is  symbolized  as  having  just  been  born; 
and  the  water  symbolism  of  the  lago  del  cor  is  analogous  to  the 
waters  of  the  flood.  The  waters  of  the  flood,  in  the  Biblical 
account  of  Noah,  are  the  amniotic  fluid  which  accompanies 
the  birth  that  the  story  of  the  flood  symbolizes.  The  lago  del 
cor,  therefore,  completes  the  birth  symbolism  of  the  opening 
lines  of  Inferno. 

Immediately  after  his  birth  as  thus  symbolized,  Dante 
attempts  to  ascend  the  delectable  mountain,  a  mother 
symbol;  and  the  fears  which  beset  him  are  his  fears  of  the  act 
of  incest  which  the  ascent  symbolizes. 

The  entrance  of  Dante,  as  sperma,  into  the  female  body  of 
the  earth  is  described  in  terms  of  coitus  symbolism.  Im- 
mediately before  he  arrives  at  the  gate  of  Hell  Dante  says  of 
himself.  Inf.  ii.  127-132: 

Quali  i  fioretti  dal  notturno  gelo  127 

Chinati  e  chiusi,  poi  che  il  Sol  gl'  imbianca, 

Si  drizzan  tutti  aperti  in  loro  stelo; 
Tal  mi  fee'  io  di  mia  virtute  stanca:  130 

E  tanto  buono  ardire  al  eor  mi  eorse, 

Ch'  io  comineiai  eome  persona  franca: 

This  description  of  Dante's  virtute  stanca  becoming  like 
the  little  flowers  which  stand  erect  on  their  stem  is  phallic 
symbolism  for  the  erection  with  which  Dante  enters  the  vulva 
of  the  earth,  the  gate  of  Hell.  And  in  the  description  of  the 
act  of  entering,  the  phallic  symbolism  is  continued.  Inf. 
iii,  19-21;  Virgil,  as  Dante  says,  la  sua  mano  alia  mia  pose 


230      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

.  .  .  and  7ni  mise  dentro.  Dante,  in  other  words,  enters  the 
gate  of  Hell  as  phallus  and  continues  the  journey  as  sperma. 
Immediately  after  the  entrance,  the  coitus  symbolism  is 
continued  with  the  most  precise  details.  The  tumulto^  il  qual 
s'aggira^  Inf.  iii.  28,  progresses  from  voci  alte  efioche^  e  suon  di 
man  con  elle,  line  27,  to  a  climax,  just  before  passing  the 
stream  of  the  Acheron,  which  Dante  describes  in  the  follow- 
ing lines.  Inf.  iii.  130-136: 

Finite  questo,  la  buia  campagna  130 

Tremo  si  forte,  che  dello  spavento 

La  mente  di  sudore  ancor  mi  bagna. 
La  terra  lagrimosa  diede  vento,  133 

Che  baleno  una  luce  vermiglia, 

La  qual  mi  vinse  ciascun  sentimento: 
E  caddi,  come  1'  uom  cui  sonno  piglia.         136 

The  trembling,  the  sweat,  the  sighing,  the  flash  of  red  that 
overcomes  all  feeling,  and  the  swoon,  all  preceding  the 
moment  in  which  the  seminal  stream  Acheron  is  passed  (i.e. 
passes)  belong  unmistakably  to  the  description  of  an  orgasm. 

In  his  further  descent  through  the  female  interior  of  the 
earth  Dante  proceeds  like  phallus  and  sperma.  He  dallies 
in  the  "noble  castle,"  the  clitoris,  a  spot  of  comparative 
pleasure  and  repose;  and  passes  thence  to  the  region  where 
the  souls  of  the  incontinent  are  punished.  Inf.  v,  by  being 
borne  convulsively  on  winds  which  symbolize  the  convulsive 
movements  of  the  vagina.  He  reaches  next  the  region  in 
which  the  gluttonous  are  punished,  a  region  in  which 

Grandine  grossa,  e  acqua  tinta,  e  neve 
Per  I'aer  tenebroso  si  riversa: 
Pute  la  terra  che  questo  riceve. 

— Inf.  vi.  10-12. 

These  lines  symbolize  the  seminal  rain  which  the  earth, 
as  the  female  symbol,  receives.  To  be  noted  is  the  reference  to 
smell  in  pute;  the  odor  symbolism  is  consistently  developed 
throughout  Inferno. 

From  the  region  of  the  gluttonous  Dante  passes  to  the 


THE   SEAL  231 

shore  of  the  Styx,  one  of  the  rivers  of  Hell,  which  forms  a 
marsh,  or  lake,  about  the  city  of  Dis  (the  uterus).  This  lake 
is  another  seminal  symbol  which  corresponds  to  the  English 
use  of  "lake"  in  the  vocabulary  of  physiology. 

When  Dante  has  passed  the  Styx  he  enters  the  uterine  city 
of  Dis.  But  his  entrance  into  the  city  is  obstructed  by  the 
Furies,  who  call  on  Medusa  to  come  and  turn  him  into  stone. 
The  danger  from  Medusa  consists  in  the  sight  of  her.  Virgil 
expresses  this  danger  in  the  following  words  addressed  to 
Dante,  Inf.  ix.  55-57: 

Volgiti  indietro,  e  tien  lo  viso  chiuso; 
Che  se  il  Gorgon  si  mostra,  e  tu  il  vedessi. 
Nulla  sarebbe  del  tornar  mai  suso. 

The  episode  is  so  important  for  the  symbolism  of  the  poem 
that,  after  telling  how  Virgil  covered  Dante's  eyes  with  his 
own  hands,  the  poem  continues  with  the  well-known  cryptic 
lines.  Inf.  ix.  61-63: 

O  voi,  che  avete  gl'  intelletti  sani, 
Mirate  la  dottrina  che  s'asconde 
Sotto  il  velame  degli  versi  strani. 

The  foregoing  episode  and  the  reference  to  the  "hidden 
doctrine"  have  never  been  satisfactorily  explained.  They 
become  clear  by  considering,  as  I  have  suggested.  Hell  as  the 
symbol  of  the  mother  and  Dante's  act  of  entering  Hell  as  the 
sexual  act,  by  which  he  commits  incest  as  a  means  of  rebirth. 

The  incestuous  character  of  the  act  is  here  indicated  by 
Dante  in  the  reference.  Inf.  ix.  54,  to  the  assault  of  Theseus. 
The  reference  is  to  the  descent  into  the  lower  regions  which 
Theseus  made  in  order  to  carry  off  Proserpine,  the  wife  of 
Pluto,  the  king  of  the  lower  region.  As  the  wife  of  the  god, 
Proserpine  represents  the  mother  whom  the  human  son 
attempts  to  separate  from  the  jealous  father  and  appropriate 
to  himself.  This  attempt  symbolizes  an  attempted  act  of 
incest. 

The  danger  in  which  Dante  stood  of  being  turned  into 
stone  is  a  symbolical  use  of  the  so-called  lithopaedion.  A 


232      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

lithopaedion  is  a  foetus  calcified  in  the  womb  of  its  mother. 
If  Dante,  as  foetus  in  the  womb  of  the  city  of  Dis,  should  be 
turned  into  stone,  i.e.  become  a  lithopaedion,  he  could  never 
be  reborn. 

The  dottrina  che  s'asconde  in  the  whole  episode  is  a  reference 
to  incest  as  a  means  of  rebirth.  The  mother,  who  is  here 
symbolized  by  the  regina  delVeterno  pianto.  Inf.  ix.  44,  and 
also  by  her  surrogate.  Medusa,  is  not  to  be  seen!  She  is  not 
to  be  seen  because  it  must  not  be  the  visible  human  mother 
with  whom  the  act  of  incest  is  to  be  committed,  but  the  divine 
mother  who  is  invisible.  In  other  words,  Dante,  in  his 
journey  to  rebirth,  must  not  be  conceived  by  her,  but  by  her 
better  counterpart,  the  mother  whom  he  finds  at  the  end  of 
his  journey  through  Hell. 

Dante  is  here  signifying  that  the  incest  by  which  his  re- 
birth is  accomplished  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  physical 
act  between  human  mother  and  human  son;  he  is  signify- 
ing that  the  incest  to  which  he  refers  is  a  symbol  of  the 
spiritual  process  by  which  a  man  may  return  to  the  divine 
source  of  life  itself,  the  divine  mother  from  whom  he  and  all 
mankind  are  born.  If  she  should  become  visible,  that  is,  if 
she,  as  the  divine  mother,  should  become  confused  with  her 
visible  form  in  the  actual  human  mother  and  so  be  identified 
by  the  poet-son  with  his  human  mother,  the  symbolized 
incest  would  become  dangerous  in  the  sense  of  becoming  a 
physical,  instead  of  a  spiritual,  fact. 

In  connection  with  Medusa  as  the  mother  whom  Dante 
is  not  permitted  to  see,  it  may  be  noted  that  a  similar 
symbolism  seems  to  be  suggested  at  the  end  oi  Par.  xxv  and 
at  the  beginning  oi Par.  xxvi.  It  is  recorded  in  these  passages 
that,  when  Dante  turns  to  look  at  Beatrice,  his  sight  is 
"quenched."  Beatrice,  as  I  shall  prove  in  the  next  chapter,  is 
the  symbol  of  his  mother,  and  I  suggest  that  the  reason  that 
his  sight  is  here  "quenched"  is  to  prevent  his  looking  upon 
his  mother  with  illicit,  or  too  physical,  affection,  just  as  he 
had  been  prevented  by  the  hands  of  Virgil  from  looking  upon 
the  mother  image  of  Medusa.  Certainly  an  association  of  the 
temporary  blindness  in  the  incident  in  Paradiso  with  the 


THE    SEAL  233 

covering  of  his  eyes  at  the  approach  of  Medusa  seems  to  be 
suggested  by  the  acrostic  on  the  first  three  lines  oi  Par.  xxvi, 
in  which  Dante  refers  to  his  viso  spento: 

Mentr'  io  dubbiava  per  lo  viso  spento, 
Delia  fulgida  fiamma  che  lo  spense 
Usci  un  spiro  che  mi  fece  attento. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 

1  ME 

2  D 

3  us 

Read:  medus 

Now  notice  the  passage  at  the  end  of  the  preceding  canto, 
Par.  XXV.  130-139: 

A  questa  voce  1'  infiammato  giro  130 

Si  quieto  con  esso  il  dolce  mischio, 

Che  si  facea  del  suon  del  trino  spiro, 
Si  come,  per  cessar  fatica  o  rischio,  133 

Li  remi  pria  nell'  acqua  ripercossi 

Tutti  si  posan  al  sonar  d'  un  fischio. 
Ahi  quanto  nella  mente  mi  commossi,  136 

Quando  mi  volsi  per  veder  Beatrice, 

Per  non  poter  vedere,  ben  ch'  io  fossi 
Presso  di  lei,  e  nel  mondo  felice!  139 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  on  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


130 

A 

"^2,3 

SI 

136 

A 

139 

PRESS 

Read:  pressa  sia 

Dante  is  near  Beatrice  but  he  cannot  see  her,  so  that  the 
wish  expressed  in  the  cryptogram:  "May  she  be  near,"  is 
appropriate  to  the  text. 

Analogous  to  Medusa  as  a  mother  symbol  are  the  bird-like 
Harpies  who  inhabit  the  bosco^  Inf.  xiii.  The  forest  is  used  as  a 


234      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

mother  symbol  in  three  important  passages  in  the  Divina 
Commedia:  the  selva  oscura.  Inf.  i,  the  divina  foresta,  Purg. 
xxviii,  and  the  bosco.  The  mother  symbolism  of  the  Harpies, 
as  well  as  of  the  bosco^  is  indicated  in  the  following  interior 
sequence,  InJ.  xiii.  9-13: 

9  tra  cecinA  e  corneto  i  luoghi  colti 

10  quivi  le  bruttE  arpie  lor  nidi  fanno 

11  che  cacciar  delle  stRofade  i  troiani 

12  con  tristo  annunzio  di  fuTuro  danno 

13  all  hanno  late  e  colli  e  visi  uMani 

Read  a  of  cecina^  9;  e  of  brutte^  10;  r  of  strojade^  1 1 ;  t  of 
futurOy  12;  M  oi  umanij  13:  matre. 

Associated  with  the  hostile,  or  dangerous,  mother  is  the 
hostile  or  dangerous  father  in  his  guise  as  lion.  He  has  already 
appeared  as  the  lion  in  Inf.  \.  He  appears  again  in  an  acrostic 
on  the  passage  in  which  Dante  hears  but  is  not  permitted 
to  see  Medusa — the  passage  which  begins  with  one  of  the 
most  significant  of  Dante's  cryptic  hints,  Inf.  ix.  61-72: 

O  voi  che  avete  gl'  intelletti  sani,  61 

Mirate  la  dottrina  che  s'  asconde 

Sotto  11  velame  degli  versi  strani. 
E  gia  venia  su  per  le  torbid'  onde  64 

Un  fracasso  d'  un  suon  pien  di  spavento, 

Per  CLii  tremavano  anibedue  le  sponde; 
Non  altrimenti  fatto  che  d'  un  vento  67 

Impetuoso  per  gli  avversi  ardori, 

Che  fier  la  selva,  e  senza  alcun  rattento 
Li  rami  schianta,  abbatte,  e  porta  fuori.  70 

Dinanzi  polveroso  va  superbo, 

E  fa  fuggir  le  fiere  e  li  pastori. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

61  o 
64  E 
67  N 
70  LI 
Read:  lione 


THE    SEAL  235 

Now  let  us  return  to  Dante's  journey  in  Inferno.  The  gate 
of  the  city  of  Dis  is  finally  opened  to  Dante  by  a  mysterious 
personage,  del  del  messOj  of  whom  Dante  says,  Inf.  ix.  88-90: 

Ahi  quanto  mi  parea  pien  di  disdegno! 
Venne  alia  porta,  e  con  una  verghetta 
L'aperse,  che  non  ebbe  alcun  ritegno. 

The  identity  of  this  personage  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
the  Divina  Commedia.  That  he  is  important  for  the  sym- 
bolism of  the  poem  is  indicated  by  the  acrostic  on  the  terzina 
just  quoted.  Consider  on  the  three  lines  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

^%         A 

89  VE 

90  L 

Read:  vela 

This  personage  veils,  as  I  believe,  Dante  himself.  As 
someone  del  del  messo  he  is  the  same  as  the  dvx,  who  is 
designated,  Purg.  xxxiii.  44,  as  messo  da  Dio.  The  verghetta  is 
his  phallic  symbol,  which  opens  the  female  gate.  Notice  that 
the  initials  of  the  three  lines  of  this  terzina,  in  which  the 
opening  of  the  gate  is  described,  are  a,  or  i;  v,  or  5;  and  l, 
or  50.  They  make,  without  the  zero,  the  cryptic  515.  This 
same  number  appears  in  terzina  82-84,  in  which  the 
mysterious  personage  is  described.  The  initials  of  the  three 
lines  of  this  terzina  are: 


82 

D 

or 

500 

83 

M 

or 

1000 

84 

E 

or 

5 

With  the  zeroes  omitted,  these  numbers  again  give  the 
cryptic  515  in  association  with  the  mysterious  personage,  who 
represents  the  divine  power  of  the  symbolized  sexual  act  of 
Dante.  Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  this 
terzina: 


236      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

82  DA 

83  M 

84  E 

Read:  me,  d  .  .  .  a  .  .  . 

Dante  thus  indicates  himself  by  his  initials.  In  the  present 
guise  Dante  is  thus  analogous  to  Mercury  with  the  phallic 
caduceus,  who  is  the  phallic  personification  of  Jupiter.  He  is 
also  analogous  to  Gabriel  at  the  annunciation  with  the 
phallic  lily,  who  is  the  phallic  personification  of  the  divine 
father  in  the  Christian  story  of  the  birth  of  Christ, 

With  Dante  thus  inside  the  uterine  city  of  Dis,  it  remains 
for  us  to  examine  the  manner  of  his  exit  from  it;  this  exit, 
as  I  shall  show,  symbolizes  his  delivery  from  the  uterus  in  the 
sense  of  his  being  at  last  reborn. 

In  the  center  of  the  city  of  Dis,  in  the  lowest  spot  of  Hell, 
stands  Lucifer,  the  imperador  del  dolorosa  regno.  When  Dante 
sees  him  he  becomes,  through  iQ.3.r^gelato  efioco^Inf.  xxxiv.  11: 

Com'  io  divenni  allor  gelato  e  fioco,  22 

Nol  domandar,  Letter,  ch'  io  non  lo  scrivo, 
Pero  ch'  ogni  parlar  sarebbe  poco. 

Io  non  morii,  e  non  rimasi  vivo:  25 

Pensa  oramai  per  te,  s'  hai  fior  d'  ingegno, 
Qual  io  divenni,  d'  uno  e  d'  altro  privo. 

In  these  cryptic  words,  which  should  be  examined  with 
particular  care,  the  reader  is  adjured  to  think  for  himself 
what  Dante  then  became.,  since  Dante  himself  will  not  write  it. 

What  was  it,  then,  that  Dante  became,  if  he  was  here 
neither  dead  nor  alive?  The  only  condition  which  may  be 
considered  as  neither  dead  nor  alive  is  the  foetal  condition, 
and  Dante  is  saying  here  that  in  the  presence  of  Lucifer  he 
became  a  foetus.  This  interpretation  is  confirmed  by  the 
interior  sequences  in  the  passage: 

22  com'io  divenni   allor  gelaTO  E  Fioco 

23  nol   domandar  letTOr  ch'io  NON  lo   scrivo 

24  pEro   ch'ogni   parlar  sarebbE  poco 

25  io  non  morii   e  non   rimasi  VIVO 

26  pensa  oramai  per  te  s'hai  Fior  d' ingegno 


THE    SEAL  237 

Notice  first  that  in  the  words  gelato  e  Jioco,  line  22.  the 

letters  of  FETO  are  grouped  together,  thus:  (gela)TO  e  F(ioco). 

Now  read  from  f  oifioco,  22;  to  oi  lettor^  23;  e  o{ pero^  24: 

FETO. 

Read,  in  a  vertical  line,  from  to  oi  gelato^  22;  non,  23; 
final  E  oi  sarebbe^  24;  vivo,  25;  f  oifior^  26:  feto  non  vivo. 

It  is  therefore  as  a  foetus  that  Dante,  clinging  to  Virgil, 
is  carried  by  Virgil,  climbing  down  the  shaggy  sides  of 
Lucifer,  to  a  spot  from  which  they  seem  to  Dante  to  begin  to 
climb  up  again.  Dante  imagines  that  they  are  climbing  back 
from  this  spot  to  where  he  has  been  before.  But,  as  he  after- 
wards learns,  the  spot  is  the  center  of  gravity,  i.e.,  the  center 
of  the  earth;  and  therefore,  in  continuing  still  in  the  same 
direction  toward  the  southern  side  of  the  earth,  the  poets 
have  to  begin  to  climb  instead  of  continuing  to  descend. 
Such  is  the  apparent  meaning  of  the  spot  by  which  Dante 
becomes  confused. 

That  the  spot  has  some  deeper  symbolism  is  indicated  by 
the  words  which  Dante  addresses  to  the  reader  in  regard  to  it, 
InJ.  xxxiv.  91-93: 

E  s'  io  divenni  allora  travagliato, 

La  gente  grossa  il  pensi,  che  non  vede 

Qual  e  quel  punto  ch'  io  avea  passato. 

What  Dante  means  to  indicate  here  is  that  the  punto 
which  he  passed  is  the  pene  of  Lucifer.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  Lucifer  is  standing  in  Hell  in  such  a  position 
that  his  genitals  are  exactly  at  the  centre  of  the  earth  and  so 
at  the  centre  of  gravity.  Dante,  who,  at  the  sight  of  Lucifer, 
became  feto,  must  now  have  become  sperma  again  in  order 
to  pass  through  the  pene  of  Lucifer  into  the  cavity  below. 

That  Dante  means  the  pene  as  the  mysterious  punto 
which  he  passed  should  be  apparent  in  the  words  in  which  he 
refers  to  it,  lines  91-93.  Travagliato^  line  91,  has  a  double 
meaning  referring  to  coitus,  and  gente  grossa  has  a  double 
meaning  referring  to  pregnancy.  The  verb  for  gente  grossa  is 
pensiy  line  92,  which  is  an  anagram  for  penis ^  and  which  is 


238      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

in   addition    the   word  on   which    terminate   three   interior 
sequences  spelling:  pene.  They  appear  as  follows: 

90  E  vidili   le   gambe   in  su   tenere 

91  e   s'io  divENni   allora  travagliato 

92  la  gENte   grossa  il   PENsi   che  non  vede 

93  qual   e  quel   Punto   ch'io  avea  passato 

94  lEvati   su  disse   11  maEstro   in  piede 

Read  from  the  e,  initial  of  line  90;  en  o{  divenni,  91;  p  of 
pensi^  92:  PENE. 

Read  from  en  of  the  same  v^ord,  pensi,  92;  p  o{ punto ^  93; 
E  oi  levati,  94:  pene. 

Read  en  oi gente^  92;  p  oi punto.,  93;  e  oi  maestro.,  94:  pene. 

In  addition  to  the  sequences,  the  three  terzine  in  which 
they  appear,  Inf.  xxxiv.  88-99,  contain  an  acrostic: 

lo  levai  gli  occhi,  e  credetti  vedere  88 

Lucifero  com'  io  1'  avea  lasciato, 

E  vidili  le  gambe  in  su  tenere. 
E  s'  io  divenni  allora  travagliato,  91 

La  gente  grossa  il  pensi,  che  non  vede 

Qual  e  quel  punto  ch'  io  avea  passato. 
'Levati  su,'  disse  il  Maestro,  'in  piede:  94 

La  via  e  lunga  e  il  cammino  e  malvagio, 

E  gia  il  sole  a  mezza  terza  riede.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  three  terzine: 

88       10 
91       es 
94       L 
Read:  elios 

The  initials  of  the  lines  of  the  first  terzina  of  the  foregoing 
passage  are: 

88  I 

89  L 

90  E 

Read:  eli 


THE    SEAL  239 

Eli  is  God  the  father,  and  Lucifer  is  not  only  an  aspect  of 
Christ  as  the  fallen  son,  but  also  an  aspect  of  God  the  father 
in  that  he  is  emperor  of  the  nether  world. 

The  acrostic  elios  is  thus  associated  with  Lucifer  in  his 
final  appearance  in  the  poem,  just  as  the  acrostic  sole  is 
associated  with  Lucifer  in  his  first  appearance.  The  interior 
sequences  spelling  pene  in  the  passage  containing  the 
acrostic  elios  point  to  the  phallic  symbolism  of  the  sun  in 
the  penetrating  power  of  its  light.  I  have  already  referred  to 
this  symbolism,  and  I  shall  have  to  develop  it  further  in 
connection  with  the  sex  symbolism  of  Paradise. 

It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  notice  that  Dante,  in 
passing  through  the  pene  of  Lucifer,  must  biologically,  have 
been  reduced  to  sperma,  the  significant  word  that  appears 
in  his  seal.  He  starts  in  the  poem  as  omo;  he  then  becomes 
FETO;  and  finally  sperma.  In  this  succession  of  changes 
Dante  reverses  in  his  journey  through  Hell  the  natural  order 
by  which  he  was,  in  his  origin,  first  sperma,  then  feto,  and 
finally  omo.  The  journey  through  Hell  is  thus  a  retrogression 
by  which  Dante  retraces  the  successive  stages  of  his  develop- 
ment as  a  human  being;  he  returns  to  his  original  condition 
as  SPERMA  in  the  body  of  the  father  symbolized  here  as 
Lucifer,  in  order  that  he  may  make  a  fresh  start  on  the 
cammtn  di  nostra  vita,  in  order,  in  other  words,  that  he  may 
be  born  again.  This  backward  course  through  the  successive 
stages  of  the  natural  evolution  of  a  human  being  is  expressed 
by  Dante  as  a  universal  tendency;  he  defines  this  idea  in  the 
Convivio,  iv.  12,  138,  when  he  says,  in  words  that  should 
never  be  forgotten  in  connection  with  the  Divina  Commediay 
that  il  sommo  desiderio  di  ciascuna  cosa,  e  prima  dalla  Natura 
dato,  e  lo  ritornare  al  suo  Principio. 

This  statement  that  the  supreme  desire  of  everything  is  to 
return  to  its  source  is  a  rationalization  of  the  desire  to  return 
to  the  mother  as  the  source  of  life. 

After  Dante  has  retrogressed  from  omo  to  feto  and 
finally  to  sperma  in  Inferno,  he  reverses  the  process  and 
progresses,  in  the  final  lines  of  the  final  canto,  from  sperma 
to  new-born  man.  The  importance  of  the  final  lines  of  Inf. 


240      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

xxxiv  is  not  sufficiently  appreciated;  I  wish  therefore  to  call 
attention  to  the  geography  of  the  region  through  which  they 
describe  Dante  as  passing  after  he  leaves  Lucifer, 

On  his  journey  from  the  centre  of  the  earth,  where  he 
leaves  Lucifer,  to  the  surface  of  the  southern  hemisphere, 
where  he  emerges  on  the  shore  of  the  island  of  Purgatory, 
Dante  passes  first  a/oro  d'un  sasso.  Inf.  xxxiv.  85;  then  a 
natural  burella^  line  98;  then  la  buca  cCun  sasso ^  line  131, 
through  which  descends  a  stream  along  a  cammino  ascoso^ 
line  133;  and  finally,  at  the  end  of  the  cammino  ascoso,  a 
pertugio  tondo^  through  which  Dante  emerges  to  the  surface 
of  the  earth. 

Now  it  must  be  observed  that  this  interior  between  the 
centre  of  the  earth  and  the  southern  hemisphere  is  a  duplicate 
of  the  interior  of  Hell,  which  is  between  the  centre  of  the 
earth  and  the  northern  hemisphere. 

The  pertugio  torido,  at  the  surface  of  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, corresponds  to  the  gate  of  Hell,  at  the  surface  of  the 
northern  hemisphere. 

The  cammino  ascoso,  with  the  stream  in  it,  corresponds  to 
the  course  which  Dante  follows  in  Hell  from  the  gate  of 
Hell  to  the  gate  of  the  city  of  Dis. 

The  buca  d'un  sasso,  through  which  the  stream  descends 
from  this  hidden  way  to  the  centre  of  the  earth,  corresponds 
to  the  gate  of  the  city  of  Dis. 

The  natural  burella  corresponds  to  the  city  of  Dis. 

The  foro  d'un  sasso,  through  which  Dante  emerges  in 
leaving  Lucifer,  is  the  southern  end  o{  a  cylindrical  hole  in  the 
rock  in  which  Lucifer  is  placed  with  his  feet  at  the  southern 
end  and  his  head  emerging  from  the  northern  end.  Lucifer  is 
erect  in  this  hole,  which  is  a  female  symbol,  in  an  eternal  act 
of  copulation.  This  foro  d'un  sasso  is  the  opening  which  con- 
nects the  interior  of  Hell  with  the  southern  interior  of  the 
earth,  and  belongs,  accordingly,  to  them  both  in  common. 
The  fact  that  the  genitals  of  Lucifer  are  situated  at  the  center 
of  gravity,  and  so  at  the  center  of  the  universe,  indicates  the 
central  importance  of  the  sexual  life  in  Dante's  symbolism. 
In  Dante's  universe  there  exists  a  detailed  parallel  between 


THE    SEAL  241 

its  physical  structure  and  laws  and  its  spiritual  structure  and 
laws;  the  physical  center  of  gravity  is  to  be  understood, 
accordingly,  as  corresponding  to  the  spiritual  center  of 
gravity.  The  lowest  point  in  the  universe,  in  other  words,  is 
the  symbol  of  the  lowest  moral  value,  and  corresponds  to  the 
sexual  nature  of  man,  as  symbolized  by  the  genitals.  This 
symbolism  is  apparent  in  medieval  charts  showing  the 
human  body  as  the  microcosm  of  the  universe  considered  as 
the  macrocosm.  In  these  charts  of  the  human  body  as  a 
repetition  in  parvo  of  the  universe  the  genitals  are  definitely 
shown  as  corresponding  to  the  center  of  gravity. 

The  interior  extending  from  the  centre  of  the  earth  to  the 
southern  hemisphere  is,  as  I  have  now  shown,  similar  in 
structure  to  the  interior  of  Hell.  And  these  two  interiors  have 
likewise  a  similar  symbolism.  The  pertugio  tondo  corresponds 
to  the  vulva;  the  cammino  ascoso  to  the  vagina;  the  buca  d'un 
sasso  to  the  cervix;  and  the  natural burella  to  the  uterus.  The 
Joro  d'un  sasso^  in  which  Dante  sees  Lucifer's  feet,  is  the 
southern  end  of  a  cylindrical  passage  by  which  the  southern 
interior  and  Hell  are  connected;  it  is  therefore  repeated  by  a 
similar /oro  d'un  sasso  at  the  northern  end,  through  which 
the  upper  part  of  Lucifer  emerges.  The  southern  interior  is 
thus  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  interior  of  Hell  and,  accord- 
ingly, a  geographical  symbol  of  the  mother. 

From  the  mother  region  of  Hell,  therefore,  Dante  is  ejected, 
as  SPERMA,  by  the  agency  of  the  father  figures  of  Lucifer 
and  Virgil,  into  the  mother  region  of  the  southern  interior; 
and  in  his  brief  passage  through  the  southern  interior  Dante 
must  be  supposed  to  be  transformed  successively,  by  the 
process  of  gestation,  from  sperma  to  feto  and  from  feto 
once  more  to  omo,  the  reborn  man  who  is  now  prepared  to 
continue  the  ascent  to  God.  Having  entered  the  gate  of  Hell 
by  an  act  of  incest,  Dante  emerges  from  the  pertugio  tondo^ 
the  counterpart  of  the  gate  of  Hell  as  a  symbol  of  the  vulva, 
by  the  act  of  birth,  which  is  here,  for  Dante,  rebirth. 

It  is  evident  from  the  foregoing  interpretation  of  the  two 
interiors  of  the  earth  that  the  earth,  as  Dante  describes  it, 
is  to  be  considered  as  two  mothers^  or  as  a  dual  mother.  This 


242      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

symbolism  of  the  interior  of  the  earth  as  two  mothers,  or  as  a 
dual  mother,  is  repeated  by  Dante  in  his  description  of  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  which  he  divides  as  land  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  and  water  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  both  land 
and  water  being  symbols,  and  contrasting  symbols,  of  the 
mother.  The  dual  motherhood  of  the  earth  corresponds  to 
the  conception  of  the  two  mothers,  good  and  evil,  to  which  I 
have  already  referred  as  existing  in  myths  of  rebirth.  Dante's 
symbolism  of  the  dual  character  of  the  earth  as  mother  is 
derived  in  the  first  place,  I  believe,  from  the  Pythagorean 
doctrine  of  two  earths^  the  earth  and  the  counter  earth, 
Antictona,  which  Dante  discusses  and  rejects  in  a  highly 
significant  way  in  the  Convivio,  iii.  5,  29  fF.  For  my  interpre- 
tation of  Dante's  symbolism  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  as  a 
dual  mother,  see  pp.  267-75. 

The  cylindrical  hole  in  the  rock  in  which  Lucifer  stands 
at  the  center  of  the  earth  opens  into  each  of  the  interiors 
symbolizing  the  two  mothers;  it  is,  therefore,  the  organ  which 
they  possess  in  common  and  by  which  they  are  connected. 
It  corresponds,  not  to  any  physical  conformation  in  the 
female  body,  but  to  the  function  whereby  the  sperma  which 
is  received  by  one  aspect  of  the  mother  is  transformed  and 
delivered  by  the  other  aspect  of  the  mother. 

In  the  passage  of  the  son  from  one  mother  to  the  other 
through  this  opening  there  is  signified  the  death  of  the  son  in 
the  mother  whom  he  leaves  at  the  moment  of  his  birth  in  the 
mother  whom  he  enters.  Death  and  birth  are  thus  synony- 
mous terms,  and  the  ambivalence  of  these  two  states  is  of 
the  highest  importance  in  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia.  Dante  develops  this  ambivalence  throughout  his 
poem  with  the  greatest  precision.  The  eternal  existence  of 
man  is  a  series  of  deaths  which  are  deaths  in  one  mother  and 
births  in  the  other;  existence  thus  alternates  between  the  two 
mothers  exactly  as  the  sun  is  described  in  the  passage  just 
referred  to  in  the  Convivio  as  alternating  between  the  two 
mother  cities,  Maria  and  Lucia,  which  Dante,  in  discussing 
the  Pythagorean  doctrine  of  the  earth  and  the  counter  earth, 
imagines  to  be  situated  at  the  two  poles  of  the  earth.  These 


THE    SEAL  243 

successive  existences  of  the  individual  in  the  two  mothers 
between  whom  he  alternates  is  an  expression  by  Dante  of  the 
Pythagorean  metempsychosis,  or  "wheel  of  birth;"  and  it  is 
in  this  sense  that  Dante's  successive  existences  in  Earth, 
Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise  are  to  be  understood.  This 
succession  of  existences  is  analogous  to  the  successive  revolu- 
tions of  the  sun,  which  is  forever  alternately  above  the  earth 
and  below  the  earth,  and  forever  alternating,  in  the  summer 
and  winter  solstices,  between  the  north  and  the  south  poles  of 
the  earth. 


PURGATORY 

Dante's  symbolism  of  Hell  as  the  mother  is  repeated  in  his 
symbolism  of  Purgatory  as  the  mother.  With  the  difference 
that  Hell  is  situated  in  the  interior  of  the  earth  and  Purgatory 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  the  female  physiology  of  Purga- 
tory is  strictly  parallel  to  the  female  physiology  of  Hell. 

Dante's  Purgatory  is  a  mountain  on  an  island.  As  an 
island.  Purgatory  is  thus  related  to  the  classical  conception 
of  the  abode  of  the  dead  in  the  Blessed  Isles.  The  Blessed 
Isles  were  supposed  to  lie  somewhere  in  the  west;  they  are  a 
development  of  the  sun  myth,  representing  the  spot  where 
the  sinking  sun  enters  the  earth  in  the  evening  in  order  to  be 
reborn  the  following  morning.  The  island  is  thus  the  symbol 
of  the  female  organ  by  which  the  incestuous  son,  in  the  sun 
myths,  enters  the  body  of  the  mother. 

As  a  mountain,  Purgatory  is  related  to  the  common  con- 
ception of  sacred  mountains  where  the  gods  and  the  spirits 
of  men  were  supposed  to  dwell.  Such  mountains  appear  in  the 
classical  Olympus  and  the  Teutonic  Venusberg,  in  which 
especially  the  mother  symbolism  is  manifest  in  the  fact  that 
the  mountain  is  the  dwelling  place  of  the  mother  goddess. 
The  mountain  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  preeminent  symbols  of 
motherhood;  the  analogy  between  mountain  and  mother 
which  underlies  this  symbolism  is  to  be  found  in  the  Mons 
Veneris,  the  breast,   and   the  swelling  of  pregnancy.  The 


244      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

mountain  as  a  birthplace  is  developed  with  curious  elabor- 
ation by  Dante  himself  in  his  reference  to  the  birth  of  Jupiter, 
InJ.  xiv.  And  as  the  mother  of  Christ,  the  Virgin  Mary  is 
constantly  likened  to  a  mountain  in  early  Christian  liter- 
ture.*  Compare  in  Purg.  xxii.  104-105,  the  words: 

del  monte 
Che  sempre  ha  le  nutrici  nostre  seco. 

There  is  another  indication  of  the  mother  symbolism  of 
Dante's  Purgatory  in  the  shape  which  he  gives  it.  Purgatory 
is  a  truncated  cone  with  terraces,  exactly  like  the  Tower  of 
Babel.  The  mother  symbolism  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  is  not, 
perhaps,  commonly  recognized;  this  symbolism  is  manifest, 
however,  in  the  fact  that  the  Tower  was  intended  to  be  the 
means  by  which  the  builders  were  to  ascend  from  Earth  to 
Heaven,  exactly  as  Purgatory  for  Dante  is  the  efficient  means 
of  ascent.  The  ascent  from  Earth  to  Heaven  is  the  equivalent 
of  rebirth;  and  as  the  instrument  of  rebirth.  Purgatory,  like 
the  Tower  of  Babel  which  it  resembles  in  shape,  is  the  symbol 
of  the  mother.  This  interpretation  of  the  mother  symbolism 
of  the  Tower  of  Babel  is  confirmed  by  the  comparison  in  the 
Song  of  Songs,  of  the  Shulamite,  commonly  accepted  as  a 
symbol  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  of  the  church,  to  a  tower, 
and  by  the  constant  use  of  the  tower  as  a  symbol  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  in  medieval  Christian  literature.  The  mother  sym- 
bolism of  the  tower,  or  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  in  particular,  is 
apt  to  be  disregarded  on  account  of  its  more  obvious  phallic 
symbolism,  based  on  its  phallic  shape.  But  like  so  many 
symbols,  the  tower  is  ambivalent;  it  symbolizes  in  a  single 
image  both  the  means  of  rebirth,  as  uterus,  and  the  being  who 
is  to  be  reborn,  as  phallus. 

That  Dante  had  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel  in  mind  appears  from  the  cryptograms  contained  in 
the  passage  in  which  he  describes  Nimrod,  the  builder  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel.  At  the  sight  of  Dante  Nimrod  utters  a  cry 

*See  Hirn:  The  Sacred  Shrine;  also  the  articles  on  Mountains,  Mountain 
Gods,  and  Mountain  Mother  in  Hastings:  Encyc.  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


THE    SEAL  24s 

which  is  commonly  regarded  by  the  commentators  as  pure 
gibberish,  Inf.  xxxi.  67: 

Rafel  mai  amech  izabi*  almi. 

These  words  are  a  prayer;  the  proof  that  they  are  a  prayer 
is  to  be  found  both  in  their  meaning  as  a  cryptogram  and  in 
the  acrostic  on  the  passage  in  which  they  appear.  Let  me 
show  first  the  acrostic  on  the  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine 
beginning  with  the  line  in  question,  InJ.  xxxi.  67-78: 

'Rafel  mai  amech  izabi  almi,'  67 

Comincio  a  gridar  la  fiera  bocca, 

Cui  non  si  convenian  piti  dolci  salmi. 
E  il  Duca  mio  ver  lui:  'Anima  sciocca,  70 

Tienti  col  corno,  e  con  quel  ti  disfoga, 

Quand'  ira  o  altra  passion  ti  tocca. 
Cercati  al  collo,  e  troverai  la  soga  73 

Che  il  tien  legato,  o  anima  confusa, 

E  vedi  lui  che  il  gran  petto  ti  doga.' 
Poi  disse  a  me:  'Egli  stesso  s'  accusa;  76 

Questi  e  Nembrotto,  per  lo  cui  mai  coto 

Pure  un  linguaggio  nel  mondo  non  s'  usa. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 

67  R 

70  E 

73  CE 

76  p 

Read:  prece 

In  view  of  this  suggestion  that  the  words:  Rajel  mai  amech 
izabi  almi,  are  a  prayer,  it  may  not  be  surprising  that  they 
yield,  as  a  cryptogram,  the  name  of  the  person  to  whom  the 
prayer  is  addressed.  Consider  the  initials  of  these  words: 

*Moore  reads:  zabi.  I  have  adopted  the  reading  izabi  of  Toynbee,  Casini, 
Polacco,  and  others.  The  syllable  i  is  necessary  for  the  scansion. 


246      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE    ' 

R 

M 

A 

I 

A 

Read:  maria 

The  acrostic  is  an  invocation  of  the  divine  mother. 
The  prayer  itself  appears  in   the  initial  and  contiguous 
letters  of  the  words  of  the  "gibberish"  line,  as  follows: 


RAFEL 

R 

MAI 

M 

AMECH 

AME 

IZABI 

I 

ALMI 

A 

Read:  mira  a  me 

The  prayer,  addressed  to  Maria,  is  that  she  should  have 
regard  for  the  suppliant. 

Since  the  words  of  this  line  are  a  pure  invention  of  Dante, 
they  permit  him  complete  freedom  in  turning  them  to 
cryptographic  purposes.  This  freedom  in  the  formation  of  the 
words  themselves  accounts  for  the  superficial  nonsense  of  the 
words  and  for  the  profound  and  diversified  cryptographic  use 
of  them.  For  we  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  cryptographic 
significance  of  this  line.  Consider  in  the  words  of  the  line  the 
following  telestic  and  contiguous  letters: 


RAFEL 

EL 

MAI 

MAI 

AMECH 

CH 

IZABI 

ABI 

ALMI 

ALMI 

Read:  chiami  mia  bella 

Thus  the  very  words  which  yield  as  an  acrostic  the  name  of 
the  divine  mother,  Maria,  yield  in  the  telestic  reading  the 
name  of  the  mother  of  Dante.  It  is  as  if  Dante,  when  he 
heard  Nimrod  calling  maria  in  the  acrostic,  explained  to 


THE    SEAL  247 

Nimrod  in  the  telestic  that  the  maria  whom  he  is  calling 
is  the  same  as  bella.  Thus  Maria  and  Bella  are  expressly 
identified.  Presented  as  they  are  together  in  two  cryptograms 
contained  in  the  same  words,  they  represent  the  mother  in 
her  dual  character.  This  identification  of  Maria  and  Bella 
as  the  divine  and  the  human  form  of  the  mother  will  be 
developed  in  the  next  chapter. 

It  was  in  punishment  of  the  impiety  of  Nimrod's  act,  as 
builder  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  by  which  he  strove  to  ascend 
into  Heaven,  that 

Pure  un  linguaggio  nel  mondo  non  s'usa. 

This  reference  to  the  fact  that  only  one  language  is  not  used 
in  the  world  may  be  taken  as  a  hint  of  the  use  of  cryptography. 

The  symbolism  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  is  fundamentally 
incest  symbolism.  To  ascend  into  Heaven  is  to  enter  the 
symbol  of  the  mother.  It  is  appropriate,  therefore,  to  the 
character  of  Nimrod  that  his  prayer  is  addressed  to  the 
divine  mother  Maria  and  that  he  beseeches  her  to  have  regard 
for  him. 

The  analogies  which  suggest  the  mother  symbolism  of 
Purgatory  are  confirmed  by  the  precise  parallel  which  Dante 
establishes  between  the  structure  of  Purgatory  and  the 
structure  of  the  female  body.  At  the  beginning  oi  Purgatorio 
Dante  is  to  be  considered  as  having  just  been  reborn  from 
Hell,  exactly  as  at  the  beginning  of  Inferno  he  is  to  be  con- 
sidered as  having  just  been  born  on  earth.  The  parallel  be- 
tween the  structure  of  Hell  and  the  structure  of  Purgatory  in 
terms  of  the  female  body  may  be  shown  as  follows: 

The  sea,  referred  to  as  mar  si  Amniotic  fluid.   Cf.  lago 

crudele,  Purg.  i.  3.  del  cor,  Inf.  i.  20. 

The   giunchi,    the    reeds    which  Pubic     hair.     Cf.     selva 

fringe  the  shore,  Purg.  i.  102.  oscura.  Inf.  i.  2. 

The  piu  lieve  salita  of  the  moun-  Mons  Veneris.  Cf.  /'/  di- 

tain,  Purg.  \.  108,  which  Dante  lettoso  monte^  Inf.  i.  77. 

is  directed  to  ascend  and  which 

he  begins  to  ascend  in  P^rg-.  iii. 


248      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


The  narrow  calla  through  which 
Dante  passes  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  into  Purgatory  from 
the  shore,  Purg.  iv.  22. 

The  ascent  from  the  narrow 
opening  to  the  Valley  of  the 
Princes,  Purg.  vii. 


Valley  of  the  Princes,  Purg.  vii. 

Ascent  from  the  Valley  of  the 
Princes  to  the  gate  of  Purg- 
atory proper,  Purg.  vii-ix. 

Gate  to  Purgatory  proper,  Purg. 
ix.  76. 

Purgatory  proper,  Purg.  x-xxvii. 


Vulva.  Cf.  gate  of  Hell, 
InJ.  iii. 


Entrance  of  vagina.  Cf. 
the  passage  from  the 
gate  of  Hell  to  the 
nobile  castello.,  InJ.  iii. 
iv. 

Clitoris.  Cf.  nobile  cas- 
tello^ Inf.  iv.  108. 

Vagina.  Cf.  descent  from 
the  nobile  castello  to  the 
gate  of  the  city  of  Dis, 
Inf.  v-vii. 

Cervix.  Cf.  gate  to  the 
city  of  Dis  (Hell 
proper).  Inf.  viii. 

Uterus.  Cf.  city  of  Dis, 
Inf.  ix-xxxiv. 


The  significance  of  these  parallels,  as  pointing  to  the 
mother  symbolism  of  Purgatory,  is  unmistakable.  The 
stream  symbolism  which  we  found  in  Hell,  and  which  must  be 
considered  not  only  as  seminal  and  lacteal  but  also  as  urinary 
and  fecal,  is  represented  in  Purgatory  by  Lethe  and  Eunoe. 
This  confusion  of  the  seminal  stream  with  the  lacteal,  the 
urinary,  and  the  fecal  appears  not  only  in  primitive  myth  but 
also  in  unconscious  fantasies,  as  in  dreams.  The  four-fold 
aspect  of  the  stream  symbolism  appears  in  the  Biblical 
account  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  from  which  four  streams 
flowed. 

Immediately  after  the  rebirth  of  Dante  on  the  shore  of 
Purgatory  Virgil  washes  the  face  of  Dante;  this  washing  is 
analogous,  indeed,  to  the  washing  of  the  new-born  child, 
and  especially  analogous  to  the  rite  of  baptism  as  a  symbolic 
imitation  of  birth. 

Before   Dante  reaches   the   entrance   to   Purgatory,   the 


THE    SEAL  249 

entrance  which,  as  I  said,  symbolizes  the  vulva  and  which  he 
enters  as  by  a  sexual  act,  there  is  suggested  the  erection 
symbolism  which  we  saw  in  the  reference  to  the  stem  of  the 
flowers.  Inf.  ii.  129,  before  his  approach  to  the  gate  of  Hell. 
This  suggestion  appears  in  these  lines,  Purg.  iii.  12-15: 

La  mente  mia  che  prima  era  ristretta, 
Lo  intento  rallargo,  si  come  vaga, 
E  diedi  il  viso  mio  incontro  al  poggio, 
Che  inverso  il  ciel  piu  alto  si  dislaga. 

This  description  of  his  mind  parallels  the  description  of 
his  drooping  courage,  in  the  passage  in  InJ.  ii,  which  became 
like  the  flowers  erect  on  their  stem. 

The  entrance  itself  into  Purgatory  is  described,  Purg. 
iv.  19-21,  in  terms  which  suggest  its  symbolism: 

Maggiore  aperta  molte  volte  impruna 

Con  una  forcatella  di  sue  spine 

L'uom  della  villa,  quando  Tuva  imbruna. 

The  allusion  to  an  opening  which  a  man  impruna  with  his 
spine  is  obviously  capable  of  a  double  meaning.  Consider 
the  following  marginal  letters  of  this  terzina: 


19 

MA 

20 

CO 

21 

L 

Read:  colma 

This  reference  to  a  climax  may  be  understood  as  sym- 
bolical of  the  sexual  act. 

The  coitus  symbolism  of  Dante's  passage  through  the 
calla  is  expressed  by  le  piume  del  gran  disio  which  the  ascent 
through  the  passage  requires  and  also  by  the  following  lines, 
Purg.  iv.  31-33: 

Noi  salivam*  per  entro  il  sasso  rotto 
E  d'  ogni  lato  ne  stringea  lo  stremo, 
E  piedi  e  man  volvea  il  suol  di  sotto. 

The  pressing  of  the  walls  of  the  opening  upon  the  body 

*Moore  reads:  salavam,  an  obvious  misprint. 


250      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

passing  through  it  and  the  attitude  of  the  hands  and  feet 
indicate  the  sexual  character  of  the  act.  The  phallic  sym- 
bolism in  the  passage  is  further  indicated  by  the  acrostic  on 
the  three  lines  of  the  terzina  in  question.  Consider  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters  on  these  lines: 

31  N 

32  E 

33  E  p 
Read:  pene 

Dante  is  the  pene  in  the  sex  symbolism  of  passing  through 
the  opening  of  the  mother-mountain. 

The  female  symbolism  of  the  Valley  of  the  Princes  appears 
in  the  allusion  to  it  as  ^.  grembo,  Purg.  vii.  68,  a  word  that  is 
repeated  in  describing  the  guardian  angels  as  coming  from  the 
grembo  di  Maria,  Purg.  viii.  37;  in  the  hymn  to  the  Virgin 
Mary,  Purg.  vii.  line  82;  in  the  entrance  of  the  serpent,  Purg. 
viii.  98,  into  the  grembo — the  serpent,  which  is  likened  to  the 
serpent  that  tempted  Eve,  being  certainly  phallic;  and  in  the 
pleasant  sleep  in  t}s\^  grembo.  The  symbolism  of  the  Valley  of 
the  Princes  is  developed  with  an  abundance  of  detail  into 
which  I  have  no  time  to  go. 

The  character  of  Dante's  sojourn  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Princes  is  expressed  in  the  dream  which  he  had  there.  In  this 
dream,  which  is  described  in  Purg.  ix,  Dante  seemed  to  be 
carried  away  by  an  eagle  up  to  the  fire.  That  this  eagle  is  a 
symbol  of  the  mother  with  whom  incest  is  suggested  by  the 
fire  to  which  she  carries  him,  should  be  evident  from  the 
mother  symbolism  which  I  have  already  shown  in  the  eagle 
in  Par.  xviii  and  following  (see  pp.  201-1 1).  The  eagle  in  the 
passages  in  Paradiso  appears  indeed  as  a  composite  symbol 
of  the  family  triad.  In  the  present  instance  its  symbolism  is 
determined  as  maternal  by  the  act  of  carrying  the  child. 
Dante's  allusion  to  the  "mother,"  Purg.  ix.  37,  immediately 
on  wakening,  proves  that  he  intends  the  mother  symbolism 
in  the  dream. 

The  coitus  symbolism  of  Dante's  passage  through  the  gate 
to  Purgatory  proper  is  indicated  by  the  convulsive  move- 


THE    SEAL  251 

ment  of  the  rock  through  which  he  passes  immediately 
beyond  the  gate,  Purg.  x.  7-9,  and  in  the  allusion  to  the  moon 
regaining  its  bed,  line  15.  The  moon,  on  account  of  its  waxing 
and  waning  as  in  pregnancy,  is  one  of  the  supreme  symbols  of 
the  mother  in  ancient  and  medieval  symbolism.  But  here 
again  I  am  obliged  to  forego  developing  in  detail  the  sym- 
bolism of  the  gate  and  of  Dante's  passage  through  it. 

I  wish,  however,  as  more  particularly  pertaining  to  the 
cryptography  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  to  call  attention  to 
the  seven  p's  which  the  angel  cuts  on  the  forehead  of  Dante 
and  directs  him  to  wash  off.  The  letter  p  is  generally  sup- 
posed to  stand  for  the  Italian  word  for  sin:  peccato;  and  the 
seven  p's  to  stand,  thus,  for  the  seven  so-called  mortal  sins. 
I  am  convinced  that  this  explanation  of  the  seven  p's,  correct 
though  it  may  be  for  the  mere  manifest  meaning,  does  not  go 
to  the  root  of  Dante's  symbolism. 

Considering  the  sex  symbolism  of  the  poem,  I  suggest 
that  Dante  intends  the  letter  p  as  the  phallic  symbol  which 
it  was  recognized  to  be.  The  letter  p  is  the  shape  of  the  Greek 
letter  for  r,  which  appears  in  variations  of  the  so-called  crux 
ansata: 


± 


This  cross  is  a  monogram  composed  of  the  first  two  letters 
of  the  name  of  Christ  according  to  the  Greek  spelling: 
XPISTOS,  But  the  symbolism  of  the  forms  in  this  cross  is 
much  older  than  the  date  of  Christ.  This  cross,  indeed,  was 
first  associated  with  Osiris.  The  p,  or,  as  here,  the  Greek  letter 
for  R,  is  not  only  the  complete  phallic  shape;  it  is  also  the 
shape  of  a  key;  and  the  phallus  as  the  key  which  opens  the 
female  door  is  an  ancient  and  wide-spread  conception.  That 
Dante  here  intends  the  p  to  represent  a  key  is  indicated  by 
the  reference  which  the  angel  makes  to  keys  immediately 
after  he  has  cut  the  p's  on  Dante's  forehead. 

The  use  of  the  p  suggests  here,  therefore,  by  virtue  of  its 
appearing  in  the  crux  ansata  as  a  monogram  of  Christ,  the 


252      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Christlike  character  of  Dante's  journey;  and  by  its  being  a 
symbol  of  the  phallus  as  key,  the  p  suggests  here  also  the 
sexual  character  of  this  journey. 

The  seven  p's  as  phallus  suggest  the  seven  acts  of  creation, 
which  are  recorded  in  the  seven  days  of  creation  and  sym- 
bolized in  the  phallic  seven  branched  candlestick.  The  words 
with  which  the  angel  directs  Dante  to  wash  the  "wounds" 
of  the  seven  p's  have  a  double  meaning.  He  says,  Purg.  ix. 
113-114: 

Fa  che  lavi, 
Quando  sei  dentro,  queste  piaghe. 

In  the  double  meaning  of  these  words,  there  is  a  reference 
to  the  sexual  act  which  Dante  is  to  perform  when  he  is 
dentro^  the  sexual  act,  seven  times  repeated,  as  in  the  creation 
of  the  world,  whereby  he  is  to  recreate  himself. 

Having  penetrated  into  the  womb,  or  Purgatory  proper, 
of  the  Purgatorial  mother,  Dante  passes  from  the  womb  of 
Purgatory  into  the  womb  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise.  His 
passage  from  womb  to  womb  thus  symbolized  is  accom- 
plished by  an  arduous  progress  through  a  wall  of  fire,  Purg. 
xxvii,  and  the  ascent  of  a  stairway  from  the  top  step  of  which 
the  Terrestrial  Paradise  opens  out. 

The  progress  through  the  wall  of  fire  and  the  ascent  of  the 
stairway  symbolize  the  passage  of  Dante  as  sperma  from  the 
Purgatorial  mother  into  the  motherlike  Terrestrial  Paradise. 
This  passage  is  exactly  analogous  to  his  passage  via  Lucifer 
from  Hell  to  the  southern  interior  of  the  earth;  and  just  as 
we  saw  that  Dante  was  reduced  to  the  condition  of  sperma 
before  passing  from  Hell  to  the  southern  interior  of  the  earth, 
he  must  likewise  be  considered  here,  in  the  uppermost  terrace 
of  Purgatory,  as  having  been  reduced  to  sperma  in  order  to 
pass  from  Purgatory  to  the  Terrestrial  Paradise. 

The  retrogressive  character  of  the  ascent  of  the  mountain 
of  Purgatory,  disguised  as  a  progress  from  the  greater  sinful- 
ness of  the  lower  cornices  to  the  lesser  sinfulness  of  the  higher, 
must  not  be  overlooked.  For  just  as  Dante  has  retrogressed  in 
Hell  to  the  original  evil  in  man,  so  here  in  Purgatory  he 


THE   SEAL  253 

retrogresses  to  man's  original  sinlessness,  as  exemplified  in  the 
condition  of  Adam  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  before  the  fall. 
Here,  as  in  Hell,  Dante  is  illustrating  the  general  principle 
which  he  enunciates  in  the  Convivio  that  the  supreme  desire  of 
everything  is  to  return  to  its  source.  That  this  desire  may 
express  itself  as  incest  desire  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  in 
incest  desire  the  child  seeks  to  return  to  its  source  in  the 
mother. 

The  retrogressive  ascent  of  Purgatory  to  the  original  sin- 
lessness of  man  is  symbolized,  as  I  have  said,  by  Dante's 
retrogression  from  human  form  to  the  form  of  sperma,  as 
which  he  is  passed  through  the  fire  and  up  the  stairway.  His 
form  as  sperma  is  indicated,  as  I  have  already  shown  in  my 
treatment  of  Statius  (pp.  195-200),  by  his  being,  during  the 
passage  through  the  fire,  between  his  poetical  father  Virgil 
and  his  poetical  mother  Statius,  the  proper  position  of 
SPERMA  at  the  moment  of  conception.  The  fire  and  the  stair- 
way, as  commonly  both  in  dreams  and  conscious  symbolism, 
is  coitus  symbolism.  Coitus  and  the  act  of  birth  are  ambiva- 
lent in  rebirth  symboHsm,  since  both  coitus  and  birth  are  a 
passage  through  the  vulva. 

Dante,  then,  is  not  reborn  in  Purgatory.  He  is  merely 
prepared  for  rebirth  by  being  reduced  to  the  primitive  con- 
dition in  which  he  is  capable  of  rebirth,  and  then  passed  into 
the  womb  of  the  mother,  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  by  whom 
his  rebirth  is  accomplished.  Thus  the  Terrestrial  Paradise, 
as  the  mother  in  whom  Dante  enters  by  a  sexual  act  in  order 
to  be  conceived  anew,  corresponds  to  the  southern  interior 
of  the  earth,  in  which  Dante  is  reconceived  after  having  been 
reduced  to  the  original  form  of  sperma  in  Hell.  The  Ter- 
restrial Paradise  as  a  mother  symbol  is  the  counterpart  of 
Purgatory;  Purgatory  and  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  together 
are  the  two  mothers,  or  the  dual  mother,  analogous  to  the 
dual  mother  of  the  earth  as  symbolized  by  the  northern 
interior  of  the  earth,  or  Hell,  and  the  southern  interior  of  the 
earth. 

That  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  is  indeed  a  mother  symbol  is 
self-evident  from  its  being  the  Garden  of  Eden.  The  mother  is 


254      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF    DANTE 

preeminently  the  garden,  and  has  been  universally  so  sym- 
bolized. The  mother  symbolism  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  is 
developed,  as  I  shall  show  in  the  next  chapter,  in  the  episode 
of  Dante's  sleep  with  Beatrice.  In  this  sleep  is  signified  the 
union  of  Dante  and  Beatrice,  whereby  he  enters  her  womb  as 
he  has  entered  the  womb  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise;  and  it  is 
in  the  womb  of  Beatrice  that  he  is  carried  to  Paradise. 


PARADISE 

The  mother  symbolism  of  Hell  and  Purgatory  is  repeated 
in  the  structure  of  Dante's  Paradise.  The  symbolism  of 
Heaven,  or  the  sky,  as  mother  is  much  more  ancient,  however, 
than  Dante.  The  sky  is  a  womb-like  enclosure  of  all  the  life 
beneath  it,  and  this  similitude  is  expressed  in  the  symbolism 
of  all  peoples  in  all  ages;  it  is  apparent  in  certain  variations 
of  the  sun  myth,  where  the  sky  is  the  mother  of  the  sun. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  moreover,  that  the  primitive 
conceptions  of  the  earth  and  the  sky  as  mother  were  rational- 
ized into  a  philosophic  form  in  which  the  universe,  or 
macrocosm,  is  considered  as  exactly  analogous  in  structure 
to  the  human  body,  the  microcosm,  or  little  universe. 
According  to  Baldwin's  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and 
Psychology,  to  which  the  reader  should  refer,  "the  idea  of 
such  an  analogy  is  present  in  the  Aristotelian  philosophy, 
and  was  developed  by  the  Stoics  in  connection  with  their 
doctrine  oi pneuma,  the  divine  reason,  which  is  also  the  warm 
vital  breath  that  animates  and  purposively  pervades  the 
universe." 

The  analogy  between  the  universe  and  the  mind  of  man 
underlies  all  forms  of  idealism.  But  preceding  this  idealistic 
conception  of  the  macrocosm  and  the  microcosm,  and  con- 
tinued in  connection  with  it,  there  was  worked  out  in  the 
greatest  detail  the  analogy  between  the  structure  of  the 
universe  and  the  structure  of  the  human  body.  This  physical 
correspondence  underlies  the  structure  of  the  universe  in  the 
Divina  Commedia;  it  is  expressed  by  Dante  in  the  phrase, 


THE    SEAL  255 

questa  e  forma 
Che  I'universo  a  Dio  fa  simigliante; 

— Par.  i.  1 04- 1 05: 
and  in  his  reference  to  Paradise  as  the  deijorme  regno.  Par. 
ii.  20. 

The  universe  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  exactly  as  man 
is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  as  expressed  in  Genesis  i.  27: 
"So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God 
created  he  him;  male  and  female  created  he  them."  Now  if 
the  universe  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  man  is  in  the 
image  of  God,  it  follows  that  the  universe  and  man,  being 
both  in  the  image  of  God,  must  resemble  each  other.  In  other 
words,  the  universe  must  be  the  image  of  man. 

Moreover,  if  the  universe  is  the  image  of  God  as  the 
Christian  Trinity,  it  must  have  a  male  aspect,  as  correspond- 
ing to  God  the  Father,  and  in  its  male  aspect  it  must  have 
an  aspect  corresponding  not  only  to  God  as  father  but  also 
to  God  as  Son.  And  it  must  also  have  ^.  female  aspect  cor- 
responding to  God  as  Holy  Ghost,  or  divine  mother.  That 
there  is  a  female  aspect  of  the  God  described  in  Genesis  is 
implied  in  the  sentence  from  Genesis  where  it  is  said  that 
God,  creating  man  in  his  own  image,  created  man  male  and 
female. 

The  foregoing  observations  have  the  strictest  pertinence  to 
the  structure  of  Dante's  universe,  which  has  a  male,  or 
penetrating  and  conceptual,  form  corresponding  to  the  father 
and  the  son  of  the  divine  Trinity;  and  a  female  form  corres- 
ponding to  the  mother  or  Holy  Ghost,  of  the  divine  Trinity. 
The  unity  of  the  Divine  Trinity,  thus  expressed  as  a  family, 
is  expressed  by  their  union  in  the  moment  in  which  the 
divine  son  is  conceived;  it  is  at  this  moment,  as  a  biological 
fact,  that  father,  mother,  and  son  are  together  and  therefore 
one. 

Rational  as  the  idea  thus  appears  to  be,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  ancient  and  medieval  philosophy,  that  the  universe 
has  a  female  form  as  well  as  a  male  form,  it  should  not  be 
surprising  that  Dante  expresses  this  female  form  in  the 
structure  of  his  Paradise,  just  as  he  expresses  it  in  the  struc- 


256      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

ture  of  Hell  and  Purgatory,  and  that  he  expresses  the  male 
form  in  the  symbolism  of  his  journey  as  sperma  through  the 
female  form  of  Paradise. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  correspondences  between  the 
structure  of  Paradise  and  the  structure  of  the  female  body, 
correspondences  which  in  turn  reveal  the  parallel  between  the 
structure  of  Paradise  and  the  structure  of  Hell  and  of 
Purgatory.  The  parallel  is  clear,  but  in  order  to  recognize 
the  parallel  it  is  necessary  to  recognize  the  method  by  which 
the  symbolism  in  Paradiso  is  expressed.  Beyond  the  division 
of  Paradise  into  ten  regions,  it  has  no  specific  topography, 
and  therefore  the  organi  del  mondo,  to  use  a  suggestive  phrase 
of  Dante's,  are  not  materially  localized  in  Paradiso,  as  they 
are  in  Inferno  and  in  Purgatorio.  The  various  regions  of 
Paradise  are  differentiated  by  the  different  kinds  of  thought 
expressed  in  them;  it  is  from  the  symbolism  of  ideas  rather 
than  from  topographical  symbolism  that  the  meaning  of 
Paradise  is  to  be  inferred.  The  following  parallel  columns  will 
show  the  extent  to  which  the  structure  of  Paradise  resembles 
the  structure  of  the  female  body  and  the  structure  of  Hell 
and  Purgatory. 

Lo  gran  mar  delV  essere.  Par.  Amniotic  fluid.  Cf.  lago 
i.  113.  del  cor.  Inf.  i.  20,  and 

mar  si   crudele,   Purg. 

Foglie  of  the  alloro,  the  foliage  of  Pubic  hair.  Cf.  selva 
the  laurel  on  the  mountain,  oscura,InJ.\.i,3.ndt\\Q. 
Par.  i.  15,  26.  giunchiy  Purg.  i.  102. 

ParnasOy  Par.  i.  16.  Mons  Veneris,  Cf.  il  di- 

lettoso  monte.  Inf.  i.  77, 
and  the  piii  lieve  salita, 
Purg.  i.  108. 
Foce,  Par.  \.  44,  reinforced  by  the     Vulva.  Cf.  gate  of  Hell, 
allusion  to  the  passage  to  Col-         InJ.  iii,  and  the  narrow 
chos.  Par.  ii.  16,  these  allusions         calla,  Purg.  iv.  22. 
referring  to  Dante's  entrance 
into  the  sphere  of  the  moon. 


THE   SEAL 


257 


Rivo,  Par.  i.  137,  together  with 
acque^  Par.  iii.  11,  acqua^  Par. 
iii.  123,  and  santo  rio^  Par.  iv. 
115. 


Passage  from  the  sphere  of  the 
moon  to  the  sphere  of  Mer- 
cury, Par.  V. 


The  peschieray  Par.  v. 


Passage  from  the  sphere  of  Mer- 
cury to  the  sphere  of  Venus, 
Par.  viii. 


Entrance  into  the  sphere  of 
Venus.  The  conical  shadow  of 
the  earth  which  extends 
through  the  first  three 
heavens,  coming  to  an  apex  at 
the  sphere  of  Venus,  redupli- 
cates in  its  form  the  hollow 
cone  of  Hell  and  the  solid 
cone  of  the  mountain  of  Purga- 
tory. Thus  the  shadow  of  the 
earth  represents  the  organs  al- 
ready named;  the  circle  of  the 


Bodily  streams,  seminal, 
lacteal,  urinary  and 
fecal.  Cf.  Acheron,  Inf. 
iii.  78,  and  Lethe  and 
Eunoe,  Purg.  xxviii. 
130-13 1,  and  elsewhere. 

Entrance  of  vagina.  Cf. 
the  passage  from  the 
gate  of  Hell  to  the 
nobile  castello^  Inf.  iii, 
iv;  and  the  ascent  from 
the  narrow  opening  to 
the  Valley  of  the 
Princes,  Purg.  vii. 

Clitoris.  Cf.  nobile  castel- 
loy  Inf.  iv;  and  the 
Valley  of  the  Princes, 
the  gremboy  Purg.  vii. 

Vagina.  Cf.  descent  from 
the  nobile  castello  to  the 
gate  of  the  city  of  Dis, 
Inf.  v-vii;  and  the  as- 
cent from  the  Valley  of 
the  Princes  to  the  gate 
of  Purgatory  proper, 
Purg.  vii-ix. 

Cervix.  Cf.  gate  to  the 
city  of  Dis  (Hell 
proper).  Inf.  viii;  and 
gate  to  Purgatory 
proper,  Purg.  ix.  76. 


258      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

cone  in  the  sphere  of  the  moon 
represents     the     vulva;     the 
shadow  from  the  sphere  of  the 
moon  to  the  sphere  of  Venus, 
the  vagina;  and  the  apex  of  the 
cone,  the  cervix. 
The   third,   fourth,   fifth,   sixth,     Uterus.  Cf.  city  of  Dis, 
seventh,     eighth     and     ninth         /«/.  ix-xxxiv;  andPurg- 
circles.  The  uterine  character         atory  proper,  Purg.  x- 
of   the   heavens    beyond    the        xxvii. 
shadow  of  the   earth   is   sug- 
gested by  the  allusion.  Par.  ix, 
82,  to  la  maggior  valle  in  che 
Vacqua  si  spanda.  For  the  de- 
velopment of  the  symbolism  of 
la  maggior  valle,  see  pp.  267-73. 

The  passage  of  Dante  through  the  heavens  thus  symbolized 
as  the  female  body  is  expressed  in  terms  of  sexual  union  and 
birth.  The  expression  of  this  union  and  birth,  or  rebirth,  is 
throughout  Paradiso  principally  in  terms  of  the  phallic 
symbolism  of  the  sun  and  of  light,  the  penetrating  power  of 
the  sun.  Especially  clear  is  this  symbolism  in  the  follow- 
ing lines,  describing  the  actual  entrance  into  the  sphere  of 
the  moon,  Par.  ii.  34-36: 

Per  entro  se  I'eterna  margarita 
Ne  recepette,  com'acqua  recepe 
Raggio  di  luce,  permanendo  unita. 

The  entrance  of  light  into  a  transparent  body  is  one  of  the 
common  symbols  of  the  sexual  union  whereby  the  Virgin 
Mary  conceived  her  divine  child.  The  light  enters  the  object 
without  rupturing  its  surface;  the  unruptured  surface 
through  which  the  light  enters  corresponds,  in  medieval 
symbolism,  to  the  unruptured  hymen  of  the  Virgin,  whereby 
she  received  the  divine  child  into  her  womb  without  losing 
the  sign  of  her  virginity.  The  light  is  phallic,  and  the  object 
through  which  it  passes  is  the  female.*  The  entrance  of  the 

*See  Hirn,  The  Sacred  Shrine. 


THE    SEAL  259 

light  into  "  the  eternal  pearl,"  as  described  in  the  terzina  just 
quoted,  recalls  the  acrostic  readings  on  the  opening  lines  of 
Par.  i.  which  are:  vela  pene,  on  a  passage  treating  of  the 
"light"  of  God,  and  in  una  perla  (see  pp.  29-30).  That  the 
light  which  enters  the  pearl  in  the  present  passage  has  the 
phallic  symbolism  which  I  suggest  is  proved  by  the  acrostic 
on  the  three  lines  of  the  terzina: 

34  PE 

35  NE 

36  RAGGIO    DI    LUCE 

Read:  pene:  raggio  di  luce 

The  phallic  symbolism  of  light  in  the  Divina  Commedia^ 
and  especially  in  Paradiso,  is  so  important  that  Dante  has 
not  limited  himself  to  the  foregoing  acrostic  to  indicate  his 
meaning.  There  are,  indeed,  several  acrostics  showing  the 
same  reference  to  the  ray  of  light  as  phallic. 

Following  are  the  last  four  lines  o(  Par.  v: 

Per  piu  letizia  si  mi  si  nascose  136 

Dentro  al  suo  raggio  la  figura  santa, 
E  cosi  chiusa  chiusa  mi  rispose 

Nel  modo  che  il  seguente  canto  canta.       139 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  four  lines: 

136  PE 

137  D 

138  E 

139  NE 

Read:  pene  ed 

Ed  is  Dante's  signature  and  it  is  also  a  copulative  con- 
junction. Note  the  word  raggio  in  line  137. 

For  further  cryptographic  evidence  of  the  symbolism  of 
light,  see  pp.  106-10,  290. 

The  light  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia  is  further 
developed  in  such  a  way  that  the  act  of  seeing  is  phallic  just 
as  the  ray  of  light  is  phallic.  Sight  is  supposed  to  penetrate 


26o      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

a  transparent  object  as  light  penetrates  it;  and  Dante  as  one 
who  sees  God  is  the  same  as  Dante  who  unites  himself  with 
God  in  a  union  symbolized  as  sexual.  The  symbolism  of 
Medusa  in  /;z/.  ix  now  becomes  clear.  As  I  suggested  in 
speaking  of  her  appearance  at  the  gate  of  the  city  of  Dis, 
Medusa  is  a  symbol  of  the  mother  identified  with  the  mother 
symbol  of  Hell  itself.  The  danger  for  Dante  of  seeing  her  is 
that  the  act  of  sight,  as  penetrating  an  object,  is  the  symbol 
of  sexual  union. 

The  sex  symbolism  of  Dante's  progress  through  the  female 
form  of  Paradise  is  further  developed  in  the/cxr^".  Par.  i.  44, 
which  is  mentioned  in  connection  with  Dante's  entrance  into 
Heaven  and  which  I  regard  as  a  veiled  allusion  to  the  vulva. 
The/ord"  is  the  spot  through  which  the  sun  rises  at  the  vernal 
equinox,  the  season  assigned  to  the  Creation  and  the  An- 
nunciation. Dante  is  thus  to  be  considered  as  symbolized  by 
the  sun  at  the  moment  when  it  passes  through  the/or^  as 
vulva  in  its  union  with  the  divine  mother,  the  sky,  and  in  its 
rebirth. 

The  phallic  character  of  the  sun  is  further  expressed  in  the 
description  of  the  sparks  which  it  emits.  Par.  i.  60: 

Qual  ferro  che  bogliente  esce  del  foco. 

There  is  further  phallic  symbolism  in  the  likening  of  Dante's 
ascent  to  Heaven  to  the  flight  of  an  arrow.  Par.  i.  119,  Par. 
v.  91.  The  arrow,  like  the  arrow  in  the  myth  of  Cupid,  is 
phallic. 

The  sex  symbolism  of  the  peschiera  in  the  sphere  of  the 
moon  appears  from  the  common  phallic  symbolism  of  the 
fish,  which  was,  on  account  of  its  phallic  symbolism,  also 
accepted  in  medieval  symbolism  as  the  symbol  of  Christ 
himself  in  his  regenerating  power. 

The  identification  of  Christ  with  the  fish  was  expressed  in 
early  Christian  symbolism  by  considering  the  five  letters  of 
the  Greek  word  for  fish,  'IXGTS,  as  the  initials  of  five  words 
giving  the  name  and  title  of  Christ  (see  pp.  6,  95,  399). 

The  peschiera^  as  a  female  symbol,  is  the  place  where  the 


THE    SEAL  261 

fish  swims.  Dante  has  emphasized  by  an  acrostic  the  passage 
in  which  the  peschiera  is  described,  Par.  v.  97-1  n  : 

E  se  la  Stella  si  cambio  e  rise,  97 

Qual  mi  fee'  io,  che  pur  di  mia  natura 

Trasmutabile  son  per  tutte  guise! 
Come  in  peschiera,  ch'  e  tranquilla  e  pura,     100 

Traggonsi  i  pesci  a  cio  che  vien  di  fuori 

Per  modo  che  lo  stimin  lor  pastura; 
Si  vid'  io  ben  piii  di  mille  splendori  103 

Trarsi  ver  noi,  ed  in  ciascun  s'  udia: 

'Ecco  chi  crescera  li  nostri  amori.' 
E  si  come  ciascuno  a  noi  venia,  106 

Vedeasi  1'  ombra  piena  di  letizia 

Nel  fulgor  chiaro  che  da  lei  uscia. 
Pensa,  lettor,  se  quel  che  qui  s'  inizia  109 

Non  procedesse,  come  tu  avresti 

Di  piu  sapere  angosciosa  carizia; 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  five  terzine  are: 

97  E 
100  c 
103       s 

106         E 
109         P 

Read:  pesce 

The  passage  on  which  this  acrostic  appears  contains,  lines 
98-99,  the  remarkable  words,  already  referred  to: 

pur  di  mia  natura 
Trasmutabile  son  per  tutte  guise. 

The  lines  immediately  following  this  acrostic  are: 

E  per  te  vederai,  come  da  questi 
M'  era  in  disio  d'  udir  lor  condizioni. 
Si  come  agli  occhi  mi  fur  manifesti. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 

112  E   P 

113  MERA 

114  s 
Read:  peremas 


262      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

This  is  a  double  acrostic,  as  appears  by  considering  the 
following  marginal  letters  on  the  same  lines: 

112  E 

113  ME 

114  S 

Read:  seme 

The  uterus  of  the  anthropomorphic  Paradise  of  Dante  is, 
as  I  have  suggested,  to  be  found  in  the  third,  fourth,  fifth, 
sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  circles  of  Paradise — the 
entire  region  between  the  first  two  circles  of  Paradise,through 
which  the  shadow  of  the  earth  extends,  and  the  spaceless 
Empyrean.  This  region  corresponds  to  the  City  of  Dis  in 
Inferno  and  Purgatory  proper  in  Purgatorio.  The  determining 
sex  symbolism  of  this  region  is  to  be  found  in  the  ninth  canto 
oi  Paradiso,  where  Dante  enters  the  sphere  of  Venus,  just  as 
the  determining  sex  symbolism  of  the  City  of  Dis  as  uterus  is 
to  be  found  in  the  ninth  canto  of  Inferno,  and  as  the  deter- 
mining sex  symbolism  of  Purgatory  proper  is  to  be  found  in 
the  ninth  canto  of  Purgatorio.  Paralleling  the  Venus  of  the 
uterine  region  of  Paradise  is  the  Proserpine,  mother  goddess 
of  the  underworld,  in  the  uterine  region  of  Hell.  The  number 
nine  of  these  cantos  is  in  itself  significant.  Nine  is  the  number 
associated  with  the  mother,  on  account  of  the  nine  months  of 
gestation. 

The  ninth  canto  o{ Paradiso  should  be  reread  with  especial 
attention  to  its  curious  insistence  on  illicit  love  in  relation  to 
the  history  of  the  church.  Notice  the  allusion  to  the  harlot 
Rahab,  Par.  ix.  116,  who  in  medieval  symbolism  is  considered 
as  the  type  of  the  church  and  so  of  the  divine  mother.  Notice 
also  that  the  canto  ends  on  the  word  adulterioy  which  recalls 
the  superbo  strupo,  Inf.  vii.  12. 

In  connection  with  this  adidterio  notice  the  acrostic  that 
appears  on  the  last  seven  lines  of  the  canto.  Par.  ix.  136-142: 

A  questo  intende  il  papa  e  i  cardinali:  136 

Non  vanno  i  lor  pensieri  a  Nazzarette, 
La  dove  Gabriello  aperse  1'  ali. 


THE   SEAL  263 

Ma  Vaticano  e  V  altre  parti  elette  139 

Di  Roma,  che  son  state  cimiterio 

Alia  milizia  che  Pietro  seguette, 
Tosto  libere  fien  dell'  adulteric'  142 

Consider  on  the  last  line  of  the  canto  and  the  first  lines  of 
the  two  preceding  terzine  the  following  marginal  letters: 

136       A 

139         MA 
142  TO 

Read:  amato. 

Now  consider  on  all  the  lines  of  the  same  passage  the 
following  marginal  letters: 


136 

A    QUE 

137 

NGN 

138 

LA    D 

139 

MA 

140 

DI 

141 

AL 

142 

TOSTO    LIBE 

Read:  sono  qui  l'amato  di  bella.  dante 

Notice  also  the  allusion  to  Feltro^  Par.  ix.  52,  which  we 
have  already  seen  to  be  so  important  for  the  symbolism  of  the 
adulterous  mother.  But  the  most  remarkable  confirmation 
of  the  uterine  symbolism  of  the  sphere  of  Venus  appears, 
Par.  ix.  82,  in  the  description  by  Folco  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean as 

La  maggior  valle  in  che  I'acqua  si  spanda. 

For  the  elucidation  of  the  symbolism  implied  by  this  line  I 
must  refer  the  reader  to  pp.  267-73,  as  it  must  be  developed 
in  connection  with  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  earth. 

From  the  uterus  of  the  revolving  spheres  of  Paradise 
Dante  passes  to  the  motionless  Empyrean,  from  space  to  the 
spaceless,  from  the  material  Paradise  to  the  immaterial, 
where  all  existence  is  luce  intellettual  plena  d'amore. 


264      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF   DANTE 

The  passage  from  the  ninth  heaven  into  the  Empyrean 
is  analogous  to  the  passage,  in  Inferno^  from  the  northern 
interior  of  the  earth,  or  Hell,  into  the  southern  interior,  via 
the  FENE  of  Lucifer.  The  passage  from  the  material  to  the 
immaterial  heaven  is  likewise  analogous  to  the  passage,  in 
Purgatorio^  from  Purgatory  to  the  Terrestrial  Paradise. 

And  analogously  the  Empyrean  is  the  symbol  of  the 
mother,  as  the  southern  interior  of  the  earth  and  the  Ter- 
restrial Paradise  are  symbols  of  the  mother.  And  just  as  the 
mother  symbolism  of  the  southern  interior  of  the  earth 
reduplicates  the  mother  symbolism  of  Hell,  and  as  the  mother 
symbolism  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  reduplicates  the 
mother  symbolism  of  Purgatory,  so  the  mother  symbolism  of 
the  Empyrean  reduplicates  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  nine 
material  heavens.  Thus  the  Empyrean  together  with  the 
material  heavens  of  the  nine  spheres  represents  the  divine 
mother  in  her  dual  aspect. 

The  principal  symbolic  features  of  the  Empyrean  are  the 
river  of  light  and  the  circle  of  the  mystic  rose.  The  river  of 
light  in  the  Empyrean  corresponds  to  the  ruscelletto  in  the 
southern  interior  of  the  earth,  and  to  the  mystic  rivers, 
Eunoe  and  Lethe,  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise.  The  mother 
symbolism  of  the  river  of  light  appears  from  the  fact  that  it 
suggests  to  Dante,  Par.  xxx.  82-87,  a  reference  to  the 
mother's  milk: 

Non  c  fantin  che  si  subito  rua  82 

Col  volto  verso  il  latte,  se  si  svegli 

Molto  tardato  dall'  usanza  sua, 
Come  fee'  io,  per  far  migliori  spegli  85 

Ancor  degli  occhi,  chinandomi  all'  onda 

Che  si  deriva  perche  vi  s'  immegli. 

The  circle  of  the  mystic  rose  in  the  Empyrean  corresponds 
to  the  pertugio  tondo  in  the  southern  interior  of  the  earth. 
The  female  symbolism  of  the  rose  is  obvious,  since  the  rose 
has  been  universally  used  as  the  symbol  of  the  vulva,  Dante 
intensifies  this  symbolism  by  his  reference,  Par.  xxxii.  18, 
to  le  chiome  del  fior^  a  suggestion  of  hair  in  connection  with 


THE    SEAL  265 

the  rose  that  is  to  be  understood  only  by  recognizing  the 
female  symbolism  of  the  rose.  The  female  symbolism  of  the 
rose  is  further  indicated,  Par.  xxxii.  125-126,  by  the 
reference  to  le  chiave  .  .  .  di  questo  fior;  the  key,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  is  a  common  phallic  symbol.  Another 
indication  of  the  female  symbolism  of  the  rose  is  the 
reference,  Par.  xxx.  124,  to  the  giallo  della  rosa  sempiterna; 
the  yellow  in  the  center  of  the  rose  is  the  yellow  of  the 
fecundating  pollen.  Still  another  indication  of  the  female 
symbolism  of  the  rose  is  the  reference,  Par.  xxx.  105,  to  its 
circle  as  al  sol  troppo  larga  cintura.  In  view  of  the  phallic 
symbolism  of  the  sun,  the  symbolism  of  the  cintura  of  the  sun 
is  obvious.  In  the  rose  sits  Mary,  the  mother  of  God,  a 
presence  which  quite  definitely  establishes  the  symbolism 
of  the  rose  as  maternal. 

The  consummation  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  the  consum- 
mation of  Dante's  vision,  is  the  act  of  sight  by  which  Dante 
penetrates  the  mystic  rose,  sees  God,  and  sees  himself  in  God. 
It  is  in  this  act  of  sight  that  Dante  is  symbolized  as  return- 
ing to  his  divine  source,  the  deity  from  whom  his  being  was 
derived.  And  in  this  return  to  God,  conceived  as  a  divine 
motherhood,  Dante  accomplishes  what  he  calls,  in  the 
Convivio,  il  sommo  desiderio  di  ciascuna  cosa,  e  prima  dalla 
Natura  dato^  which  is  lo  ritornare  al  suo  principio. 

That  the  act  of  sight  by  which  Dante  penetrates  the  female 
symbol  of  the  rose  is  phallic  is  evident  from  what  has  already 
been  said  of  the  light  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 
The  principio  to  which  Dante  thus  returns  by  a  symbolized 
act  of  sexual  union  is  the  divine  source  of  life,  the  womb  of 
the  divine  mother.  Union  with  God  is  thus  a  return  to  the 
womb.  The  idea  of  the  existence  in  the  womb  is  definitely 
expressed  by  Dante,  Par.  xxxii.  68-69,  ^"^  ^^^  reference  to 

quel  gemelli, 
Che  n&lla  madre  ebber  I'ira  commota. 

It  is  also  expressed  in  the  opening  lines  of  the  supreme  prayer 
to  the  Virgin  Mary,  Par.  xxxiii.  7: 

Nel  ventre  tuo  si  raccese  I'amore. 


266      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  incestuous  character  of  the  act  here  described  is  apparent 
in  the  address  to  her,  Par.  xxxiii.  i,  as 

Vergine  Madre,  figlla  del  tuo  Figlio. 

The  implications  of  this  phrase  are  clear.  The  Virgin  Mary- 
is  the  daughter  of  God;  through  God  her  father  she  con- 
ceived and  bore  her  divine  son;  and  through  her  son  she 
conceived  and  bore  her  son  a  second  time.  For  the  crypto- 
graphic device  in  this  passage  see  pp.  347-8. 

In  Paradise,  according  to  the  medieval  mystics  and  also 
according  to  the  Divina  Commedia^  it  is  always  noon.  Noon 
is  the  hour  symbolizing  the  sun  in  the  sexual  act,  and  the 
hour  of  noon  as  eternal  in  Paradise  thus  indicates  that  the 
divine  father  and  the  divine  mother  are  eternally  united  in 
the  act  of  eternally  begetting  the  divine  son.  The  idea  that 
Christ  is  eternally  begotten  in  Paradise  is  explicit  in  Gnostic 
doctrine.  The  union  of  the  three,  and  consequently  the  unity 
of  the  Trinity,  is  thus  expressed  in  terms  of  the  one  biological 
situation  where  the  three  members  of  the  family  group  are 
physically  united. 

The  sexual  character  of  the  act  of  sight  by  which  Dante 
penetrates  the  mystic  rose  is  further  expressed  by  Dante  in 
the  closing  lines  of  the  poem,  describing  the  consummation  of 
his  mystic  vision: 

Tale  era  io  a  quella  vista  nuova:  136 

Veder  voleva,  come  si  convenne 
L'  imago  al  cerchio,  e  come  vi  s'  indova; 

Ma  non  eran  da  cio  le  proprie  penne,  139 

Se  non  che  la  mia  mente  fu  percossa 
Da  un  fulgore,  in  che  sua  voglia  venne. 

Air  alta  fantasia  qui  manco  possa;  142 

Ma  gia  volgeva  il  mio  disiro  e  il  velle^ 
Si  come  rota  ch'  egualmente  e  mossa, 

L*  amor  che  move  il  sole  e  Taltre  stelle.  145 

Considering  the  phallic  symbolism  of  the  penetrating 
power  of  sight,  which  is  consistently  developed  throughout 
the  Divina  Commedia^  I  surmise  that  there  is  a  play  on  penne^ 
line  139,  for  pene.  The  whole  description  of  the  consum- 


THE    SEAL  267 

mation  of  Dante's  desire  in  this  passage,  with  t\\t  fulgorCy 
in  che  sua  voglia  venne,  together  with  the  lack  of  power  and 
the  contentment  which  follow  the  fulgore,  is  obviously 
expressed  in  the  metaphor  of  orgasm.  Let  me  refer  here,  as 
confirming  this  interpretation,  to  the  acrostic,  shown  earlier, 
pp.  30-1,  on  the  marginal  letters  of  lines  136,  139,  142,  and 
I45:  l'amata,  inside  which  appears  the  acrostic:  salma. 
The  corpse  in  the  grave  is  constantly  symbolized  in  myth 
as  phallus. 

EARTH 

I  have  already  referred,  in  discussing  the  symbolism  of  the 
sphere  of  Venus,  to  Dante's  description  of  the  Mediterranean 
in  Par.  ix.  This  description  of  the  Mediteranean,  which  has 
never  been  satisfactorily  explained,  can  be  understood  only 
in  terms  of  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  earth.  Let  us  briefly 
examine  how  this  symbolism  is  expressed  by  Dante.  Accord- 
ing to  Dante's  description  the  Mediterranean  extends  about 
90  degrees  of  the  earth's  circumference,  and  90  degrees,  of 
course,  is  much  more  than  the  actual  extent  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. Norton's  note  on  this  passage  reads  as  follows: 
"  In  the  rude  system  of  geography  current  in  Dante's  day  the 
Mediterranean  was  held  to  extend  from  west  to  east,*  counter  to 
the  sun,'  from  the  pillars  of  Hercules  to  Jerusalem,  over  ninety 
degrees  of  longitude.  Hence  its  western  end,  which  formed 
the  horizon  at  sunrise,  would  be  under  the  zenith  at  noon." 

Such  a  reference  to  "  the  rude  system  of  geography  current 
in  Dante's  day,"  is  characteristic  of  the  general  misunder- 
standing of  Dante's  symbolism,  and,  indeed,  of  the  mystical 
symbolism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Dante  can  hardly  be  supposed 
to  have  been  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  Jerusalem  is  not  on  the 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean  or  that  the  Mediterranean 
extends  much  less  than  90  degrees.  To  understand  "the  rude 
system  of  geography,"  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  recognize 
that  it  is  based  quite  consciously  by  Dante,  not  on  geo- 
graphical observations,  but  on  a  philosophic  symbolism  in 
which  the  earth  is  conceived  as  anthropomorphic. 


268      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

In  order  to  show  how  Dante  expresses  his  conception  of 
the  earth  as  a  mother  image  in  what  he  says  of  the  geography 
of  the  earth,  let  us  consider  briefly  the  surface  of  the  earth  as 
he  describes  it.  One  of  his  most  curious  ideas  is  expressed  in 
Convivio  iii,  where  he  imagines  that  a  city  called  Maria  is 
situated  at  the  North  Pole,  and  that  a  city  called  Lucia  is 
situated  at  the  South  Pole.  The  two  cities  are  called,  it  will 
be  observed,  by  names  which  are  definitely  associated  in  the 
works  of  Dante  with  his  mother  symbolism;  and  the  sun, 
padre  d'ogni  mortal  vita^  is  described  as  alternately  approach- 
ing and  withdrawing  from  these  cities  in  its  annual  alter- 
nations between  summer  and  winter.  It  is  impossible  within 
the  present  limits  to  elucidate  in  detail  the  symbolism  of  the 
polar  cities;  it  will  suffice  for  our  present  purposes,  however, 
to  suggest  that  these  two  cities,  in  their  alternating  relations 
with  the  sun,  symbolize  the  two  aspects  of  the  mother  in  the 
earth  as  a  mother  image.  Thus  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  a 
mother  image,  in  its  relation  to  the  sun,  as  a  father  image,  or 
as  an  image  of  the  incestuous  son  who  dies  in  the  autumn 
and  is  reborn  in  the  spring,  is  represented  as  being  a  dual 
mother,  or  two  mothers,  exactly  as  we  have  seen  that  the 
interior  of  the  earth,  in  relation  to  Dante's  journey  through 
its  two  divisions.  Hell  and  the  southern  interior,  is  repre- 
sented in  Inferno. 

Dante's  symbolism  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  as  a  dual 
mother  is  further  expressed  in  his  idea  that  the  surface  of  the 
earth  is  equally  divided  between  dry  land  and  water.  The  dry 
land,  according  to  this  conception,  is  confined  exclusively  to 
the  northern  hemisphere;  and  the  southern  hemisphere  is 
composed,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  island  of  Purga- 
tory, wholly  of  water.  The  dry  land,  as  the  source  of 
vegetation,  and  the  sea,  in  its  tidal  swelling  as  in  pregnancy 
and  in  its  analogy  to  the  amniotic  waters  of  birth,  are  both 
mother  images.  The  reason  that  these  two  mother  images  are 
conceived  as  being  so  distinctly  separated  into  the  northern 
and  the  southern  hemispheres  is  that  they  may  thus  be 
brought  into  the  proper  relation  with  the  annual  birth  and 
death  of  the  sun,  as  expressed  in  the  alternating  seasons. 


THESEAL  269 

The  sun  is  the  symbol  of  man;  it  dies  in  the  autumn  and  re- 
mains in  death  throughout  the  winter;  it  is  reborn  in  the 
spring  and  remains  in  Hfe  throughout  the  summer.  In  the 
autumn  and  in  the  winter,  which  correspond  to  the  death  of 
the  annual  sun,  the  sun  is  conceived  as  in  the  womb  of  the 
mother  image  of  the  waters  of  the  southern  hemisphere.  In 
the  spring  and  in  the  summer,  which  correspond  to  the 
rebirth  and  new  life  of  the  annual  sun,  the  sun  is  conceived  as 
in  the  womb  of  the  mother  image  of  the  dry  land  of  the 
northern  hemisphere.  The  eternal  life  of  the  sun,  as  the  in- 
cestuous son  who  accomplishes  his  own  rebirth,  is  thus 
conceived  as  an  eternal  cycle  of  existences  which  alternate 
between  the  wombs  of  the  two  mother  images,  land  and 
water.  As  these  two  mother  images,  land  and  water,  both 
belong  to  the  earth  as  a  single  mother  image,  they  correspond 
to  the  dual  function  of  the  mother  in  first  receiving  the  child 
into  her  womb,  as  in  sexual  union,  and  in  then  expelling  the 
child  from  her  womb,  as  in  birth.  The  two  mothers  repre- 
sent the  two  functions  of  motherhood. 

I  have  thus  explained  several  curious  details  of  Dante's 
geography  as  belonging  to  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  earth 
in  connection  with  the  annual  death  and  rebirth  of  the  sun. 
But  it  is  not  only  in  its  annual  course  that  the  sun  is  sym- 
bolized as  dying  and  as  being  reborn;  the  same  death  and 
rebirth  symbolism  appears,  both  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
and  universally  in  myth,  in  connection  with  the  diurnal 
course  of  the  sun.  Just  as  the  sun  is  supposed  to  die  in  the 
autumn  and  to  remain  in  death  throughout  the  winter,  so  it 
is  supposed  to  die  in  the  evening  and  to  remain  in  death 
throughout  the  night.  And  just  as  it  is  supposed  to  be  reborn 
in  the  spring  and  to  remain  in  life  throughout  the  summer,  so 
it  is  supposed  to  be  reborn  in  the  morning  and  to  remain  in 
life  throughout  the  day.  Dante's  own  use  of  the  diurnal 
course  of  the  sun  for  his  rebirth  symbolism  will  explain,  as  I 
will  now  briefly  show,  some  of  the  remaining  curiosities  of 
his  geography. 

In  Dante's  conception  of  the  earth,  Jerusalem,  the  highest 
point  of  the  northern  hemisphere  of  land,  is  situated  at  its 


270      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

exact  centre;  and  ninety  degrees  west  of  Jerusalem  are  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  the  modern  Gibraltar.  Throughout  the 
ninety  degrees  between  Jerusalem  and  the  Pillars  of  Hercules 
extends  the  Mediterranean,  At  exactly  the  antipodes  of 
Jerusalem,  and  therefore  a  hundred  and  eighty  degrees  from 
Jerusalem,  is  the  Mountain  of  Purgatory.  Jerusalem  and 
Purgatory  have  thus  a  common  horizon,  which  passes,  at  a 
distance  of  ninety  degrees  from  each,  through  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules. 

It  thus  appears  that  Jerusalem  and  the  Mountain  of 
Purgatory  are  like  the  polar  cities,  Maria  and  Lucia,  in  two 
important  particulars:  they  are  antipodal  to  each  other  and 
they  have,  in  consequence,  a  common  horizon  which  divides 
the  earth  into  two  equal  parts.  They  are  further  like  the 
polar  cities  Maria  and  Lucia  in  being  both  mother  images: 
Jerusalem  is  supremely  the  mother  city  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  it  has,  indeed,  the  same  symbolism  in  relation  to  the  life 
of  Christ;  and  Purgatory  is  essentially  the  mother  image  of 
spiritual  rebirth.  Jerusalem  and  Purgatory  must  be  con- 
sidered, accordingly,  by  virtue  of  their  inherent  mother 
symbolism,  as  dividing  at  their  common  horizon  the  whole 
earth  into  two  equal  parts  which  represent,  respectively,  the 
two  aspects  of  the  mother  in  the  earth  considered  as  a  single 
mother  image. 

Now  in  noting  the  parallelism  between  Maria  and  Lucia 
on  the  one  hand  and  Jerusalem  and  Purgatory  on  the  other, 
it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the  parallelism  is  not  com- 
plete. Maria  and  Lucia  are  north  and  south  of  each  other, 
whereas  Jerusalem  and  Purgatory  are  east  and  west. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  sun,  in  alternating  between 
Maria  and  Lucia,  travels  north  and  south,  as  in  its  annual 
course,  whereas  in  alternating  between  Jerusalem  and 
Purgatory  it  travels  west  and  east,  as  in  its  diurnal  course. 
Jerusalem  and  Purgatory  must  accordingly  be  considered  as 
mother  images  in  relation  to  the  diurnal  course  of  the  sun, 
just  as  we  have  seen  that  Maria  and  Lucia  must  be  considered 
as  mother  images  in  relation  to  the  annual  courso.  of  the  sun. 

In  the  light  of  this  mother  symbolism  of  Jerusalem  and 


THE    SEAL  271 

Purgatory,  and  of  the  hemispheres  of  which  they  are  respec- 
tively the  centres,  in  relation  to  the  diurnal  course  of  the  sun, 
Dante's  geographical  allusions  to  the  Mediterranean  and  to 
Jerusalem  become  comprehensible;  he  is  suggesting,  in 
relation  to  the  diurnal  course  of  the  sun,  that  the  surface  of 
the  earth  has  a  structure  like  the  structure  of  the  female  body, 
just  as  he  shows  the  same  structure  in  the  topography  of 
Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise.  Jerusalem,  as  the  centre  of 
the  mother  symbol  of  the  dry  land,  represents,  like  the  gate 
of  Hell,  the  vulva.  The  Mediterranean,  as  la  maggior  valle  of 
the  dry  land,  represents,  like  the  northern  interior  of  the 
earth,  or  Hell,  the  womb  of  the  hemisphere  of  dry  land.  The 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  as  being  the  exit  from  the  maggior  valle 
to  the  waters  of  the  Purgatorial  hemisphere,  represent,  like 
the  narrow  passage  between  Hell  and  the  southern  interior 
of  the  earth  in  Inferno^  the  passage  from  the  womb  of  the 
hemisphere  of  dry  land  to  the  womb  of  the  hemisphere  of 
water. 

Through  the  organs,  thus  symbolized,  of  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  the  sun,  in  its  diurnal  course,  passes  westward  from 
Jerusalem.  The  sex  symbolism  which  I  have  here  suggested 
for  Jerusalem  in  connection  with  the  diurnal  course  of  the 
sun  is  emphasised  by  the  fact  that  the  sun  is  alluded  to  par- 
ticularly as  at  noon  above  Jerusalem.  The  reference  may  be 
found  not  only  in  Par.  ix.  86,  but  also  in  the  allusion,  Par. 
xxiii.  11-12,  to  the  zenith  above  Jerusalem  as 

la  plaga 
Sotto  la  quale  il  sol  mostra  men  fretta. 

To  understand  the  allusion  to  the  sun  as  at  noon  above 
Jerusalem  and  as  tarrying  in  that  position  longest,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  the  mystical  symbolism  of  the  Middle 
Ages  the  moment  of  noon,  when  the  sun  is  directly  above  the 
earth,  symbolizes  sexual  union.  It  is  on  account  of  this 
symbolism,  indeed,  that  it  is  eternal  noon  in  Paradise,  where 
the  blessed  condition  of  union  with  God  is  symbolized  in 
terms  of  the  sexual  life.  In  view  of  the  symbolism  of  noon  as 
sexual  union,  noon  above  Jerusalem  suggests  Jerusalem  as 


272      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

the  symbol  of  the  organ  with  which  the  union  of  the  phaUic 
sun  would  naturally  be  made. 

Immediately  after  entering  the  mother  earth  at  her 
symbolical  centre,  Jerusalem,  the  phallic  sun,  as  the  in- 
cestuous son  who  is  to  accomplish  his  own  rebirth,  passes 
westward  into  the  maggior  valle^  which,  as  has  been  noted 
already,  has  an  extent  of  ninety  degrees.  By  disregarding  the 
zero  of  this  number,  there  appears,  as  confirming  the  uterine 
symbolism  of  the  maggior  valle,  the  number  nine.  But  the 
ninety  degrees  are  further  required  by  the  symbolism  as 
indicating  the  horizon,  or  boundary,  between  the  hemisphere 
of  Jerusalem,  as  a  mother  image,  and  its  antipodal  hemi- 
sphere. From  the  maggior  valle  the  sun  passes  westward, 
through  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  into  the  sea  of  the  hemisphere 
of  water;  it  is  thus  symbolized  as  expelled  from  the  one 
womb  and  received  into  the  other,  exactly  like  Dante  in  his 
passage  from  Hell  to  the  southern  interior  of  the  earth. 
From  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  the  sun  passes  westward  to 
Purgatory,  and  thence  again  to  the  hemisphere  of  land  and 
to  Jerusalem,  in  an  endless  series  of  rebirths. 

In  connection  with  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  surface 
of  the  earth  as  it  is  thus  developed  by  Dante,  the  reason  that 
Jerusalem  is  chosen  as  the  city  situated  at  exactly  the  center 
of  the  hemisphere  of  dry  land  and  immediately  under  the 
zenith  is  to  associate  Christ,  since  he  lived  and  died  in 
Jerusalem,  with  the  sun  as  his  supreme  symbol.  This  asso- 
ciation, however,  is  much  older  than  Dante.  It  shows,  indeed, 
in  the  Biblical  accounts  of  the  crucifixion  as  occurring  at 
noon  and  of  his  death  on  the  cross  as  occurring  at  sunset. 
The  symbolism  of  crucifixion  is  the  same  as  the  symbolism  of 
the  sun  at  noon;  it  signifies  the  union  of  the  divine  son  with 
the  divine  mother,  through  whom  he  is  to  accomplish  his 
rebirth.  His  rebirth  is  identical  with  his  death.  This  symbol- 
ism was  widely  recognized  in  medieval  mysticism,  and  is 
clearly  expressed  by  Dante  himself.  In  referring  to  the  cruci- 
fixion in  Par.  xi.  2)^-2,2,^  Dante  refers  at  the  same  time. to 

La  sposa  di  colui,  ch'ad  alte  grida 
Dispose  lei  col  sangue  benedetto. 


THE    SEAL  273 

These  lines  imply  that  the  crucifixion  symbolizes  sexual 
union  as  of  bridegroom  and  bride.  The  bride  is  the  divine 
mother  with  whom  the  divine  son  unites  in  his  death  on  the 
cross,  a  death  which  symbolizes  the  incestuous  act  which  is 
to  result  in  his  rebirth. 

The  death  of  Christ  at  sunset  indicates  that  the  parallel 
between  Christ  and  the  sun  is  to  be  carried  out  in  detail; 
Christ's  death,  like  the  setting  of  the  sun,  is  the  passage  into 
the  womb  of  the  grave,  or  of  the  divine  mother,  after  the  act 
of  union  with  her.  Thus  the  death  of  Christ,  as  synchronous 
with  the  dying  day,  is  expressed  in  terms  of  the  sun's  diurnal 
course,  just  as  his  rebirth  at  Easter,  in  the  birthtime  of  the 
year,  is  expressed  in  terms  of  the  sun's  annual  course.  The 
synchronization  with  the  course  of  the  sun  which  thus 
appears  in  the  life  of  Christ  appears  likewise  in  the  Divina 
Commedia,  as  I  have  already  suggested  in  Chapter  II,  in  the 
events  of  Dante's  dream  journey.  He  descends  into  Hell  in 
the  evening,  he  rises  to  his  new  life  in  Purgatory  on  Easter 
morning,  and  he  is  in  Paradise  at  noon. 

Another  significant  instance  of  Dante's  use  of  the  earth 
as  a  mother  image  appears  in  his  account.  Inf.  xxxiv.  121- 
126,  of  the  manner  in  which  Hell  was  created.  According 
to  this  account,  Lucifer,  when  he  was  cast  out  of  Heaven, 
fell  to  earth  on  the  southern  hemisphere,  which  was  originally 
covered  with  land.  The  earth  opened  out  into  the  abyss  of 
Hell  to  receive  him;  and  the  land  of  the  southern  hemisphere, 
in  fear  of  him,  withdrew  and  left  the  southern  hemisphere, 
where  he  had  entered  the  earth,  covered  with  water.  This 
account  of  the  fall  of  Lucifer  and  the  creation  of  Hell  is 
obviously  a  symbolic  representation  of  the  incestuous  act 
for  which  he  was  cast  out  of  Heaven.  He  was  cast  forth  as 
SPERMA  is  cast  forth;  and  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  the* 
frightened  mother,  retreated  from  him,  and  yet  opened  up, 
as  in  the  sexual  act,  to  receive  him,  and  then,  as  with  the 
amniotic  waters  of  pregnancy,  covered  the  region  where  he 
had  entered  with  the  sea.  Thus  the  punishment  of  Lucifer 
is  a  repetition  of  the  sin  for  which  he  is  punished;  he  is  held 
in  the  womb  which,  as  the  incestuous  son,  he  has  violated. 


274      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

In  connection  with  the  mother  symboHsm  of  the  earth  I 
wish  to  refer  briefly  to  a  confirmatory  detail  in  the  opening 
Hnes  oi  Inferno,  where  Dante  says: 

Nel  mezzo  del  cammin  di  nostra  vita 
Mi  ritrovai  per  una  selva  oscura. 

According  to  Scartazzini,  the  words  Mi  ritrovai  mean:  mi 
accorsi  d'essere;  and  they  are  almost  invariably  translated: 
"I  found  myself."  It  thus  appears  in  Scartazzini's  comment 
and  in  the  various  translations  that  the  reiterative  sense  which 
actually  appears  in  the  form  of  the  verb  ritrovai  is  not  to  be 
considered  as  intended  by  Dante.  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
however,  that  in  their  quite  literal  sense  the  words  Mi 
ritrovai  mean:  "I  found  myself  again;"  and  it  is  in  this  literal 
sense  that  I  believe  the  words  must  be  understood. 

Now  as  soon  as  the  words  Mi  ritrovai  are  understood  to 
mean,  as  they  are  written:  "I  found  myself  again,"  the 
second  line  oi  Inferno  assumes  an  extraordinary  significance. 
For  in  thus  saying:  "I  found  myself  again  in  a  dark  wood," 
Dante  implies  that  he  has  been  in  the  dark  wood  before. 

The  implications  of  the  reiterative  sense  of  the  words: 

Mi  ritrovai  per  una  selva  oscura, 

appear  at  once  in  considering  the  Divina  Commedia  either  as 
the  dream  which  it  purports  to  be  or  as  a  conscious  allegory. 
In  dreaming,  as  Dante  here  suggests,  that  he  finds  himself  in 
a  wood  where  he  has  been  before,  Dante  is  reproducing  a 
very  common  dream  experience:  the  phantasy  of  being  twice 
in  the  same  place.  This  phantasy  is  so  common  in  dreams  that 
Freud  has  classified  the  dreams  in  which  it  appears  as  the 
dream  of  the  deja  vu.  Now  the  place  which,  in  all  dreams 
of  the  deja  vu,  the  dreamer  thus  imagines  that  he  is 
revisiting  has  been  analyzed  by  Freud  to  be  the  body  of 
the  mother,  in  whom  the  dreamer  has  already  been  as  the 
child  in  her  womb.  In  the  opinion  of  Freud,  accordingly,  the 
dream  of  the  deja  vu  is  an  incest  phantasy.  In  view  of  the 
reiterative  sense  of  Mi  ritrovai  it  would  thus  seem  that  the 
Divina  Commedia  is  a  dream  of  the  deja  vu,  in  which  the 
selva  oscura,  as  deja  vue,  must  be  understood  to  symbolize  the 


THE    SEAL  275 

mother  of  the  dreamer.  This  interpretation  of  the  opening 
lines  of  Inferno  is  confirmed,  not  only  by  what  we  have 
already  discovered  of  the  symbolism  of  the  selva  oscura  as  the 
mother  of  Dante  and  of  the  nati  whom  he  represents,  but 
also  by  the  symbolism  of  the  entire  poem,  in  which  Dante 
represents  himself  as  returning  to  the  womb  of  his  mother  in 
his  return  to  the  various  mother  images  of  his  anthropo- 
morphic universe. 

EXAMPLES  OF  PEREMAS 

The  foregoing  survey,  necessarily  brief,  of  the  sex  symbol- 
ism of  the  Divina  Commedia  confirms,  I  believe,  the  im- 
portance which  I  attach  to  per  me  si  va,  the  thrice  repeated 
phrase  in  the  inscription  over  the  gate  of  Hell,  as  an  anagram 

for    PEREMAS    VI,  VI  E  SPERMA  and  VI   ERA  SPEM. 

The  anagrammatic  permutations  of  the  phrase:  per  me  si 
VA,  have  the  most  profound  implications  for  the  meaning  of 
the  Divina  Commedia.  The  phrase  itself  implies  that  the  gate 
of  Hell  is  the  vulva,  for  this  phrase  describing  the  gate  of 
Hell  says,  in  one  of  its  permutations,  that  vi  e  sperma. 

And  in  another  of  its  permutations  it  says  that  vi  era 
SPEM,  thus  showing  sperma  and  spem  as  related  symbols, 
symbols,  as  we  have  seen,  of  Christ,  of  Dante,  and  of 
humanity  in  general. 

And  the  permutation:  peremas  vi,  instructs  the  reader /o 
remove  from  the  poem  its  hidden  meaning. 

I  will  now  show  a  few  examples  of  peremas  as  it  appears  in 
cryptograms  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  Other  examples  have 
been  shown  in  earlier  chapters. 

The  following  passage,  InJ.  xxv.  13-24,  consists  of  four 
terzine : 

Per  tutti  i  cerchi  dell'  inferno  oscuri  13 

Non  vidi  spirto  in  Dio  tanto  superbo, 
Non  quel  che  cadde  a  Tebe  giu  da'  muri. 

Ei  si  fuggi,  che  non  parlo  piu  verbo:  16 

Ed  io  vidi  un  Centauro  pien  di  rabbia 
Venir  chiamando:  'Ov'e,  ov'  e  1'  acerbo?' 


276      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Maremma  non  cred'  io  che  tante  n'  abbia,        19 
Quante  bisce  egli  avea  su  per  la  groppa, 
Infin  dove  comincia  nostra  labbia. 

Sopra  le  spalle,  dietro  dalla  coppa,  22 

Con  r  all  aperte  gli  giacea  un  draco, 
E  quello  affoca  qualunque  s'  intoppa. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


13 

PER 

16 

E 

19 

MA 

22 

S 

Read:  peremas 

As  in  Pu?-g.  i.  1-13,  the  initial  letters  of  the  same  lines  are: 
13       p 
16       e 
19        M 
22       s 

Read:  spem 

The  following  passage,  Inf.  xx.  97-1 11,  consists  of  five 
terzine: 

Pero  t'  assenno,  che  se  tu  mai  odi  97 

Originar  la  mia  terra  altrimenti, 

La  verita  nulla  menzogna  frodi.' 
Ed  io:  'Maestro,  i  tuoi  ragionamenti  100 

Mi  son  si  certi,  e  prendon  si  mia  fede, 

Che  gli  altri  mi  sarian  carboni  spenti. 
Ma  dimmi  della  gente  che  procede,  103 

Se  tu  ne  vedi  alcun  degno  di  nota; 

Che  solo  a  cio  la  mia  mente  rifiede.' 
Allor  mi  disse:  'Quel  che  dalla  gota  106 

Porge  la  barba  in  sulle  spalle  brune, 

Fu,  quando  Grecia  fu  di  maschi  vota 
Si  che  appena  rimaser  per  le  cune,  109 

Augure,  e  diede  il  punto  con  Calcanta 

In  Aulide  a  tagliar  la  prima  fune. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 


THE   SEAL  277 


97 

PER 

100 

E 

103 

M 

106 

A 

109 

S 

PEREMAS 

Read; 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  same 
lines: 


97 

PER 

100 

ED  10 

103 

M 

106 

A 

109 

s 

Read: 

ED  10 

SPERMA 

There  is  a  hint  in  line  99:  La  verita  nulla  menzogna  frodiy 
iet  no  falsehood  defraud  the  truth." 

The  following  passage  is  Inf.  xvi.  43-54: 

Ed  io,  che  posto  son  con  loro  in  croce,  43 

Jacopo  Rusticucci  fui:  e  certo 
La  fiera  moglie  piu  ch'  altro  mi  nuoce.' 

S'  io  fussi  stato  dal  foco  coperto,  46 

Gittato  mi  sarei  tra  lor  disotto, 
E  credo  che  il  Dottor  1'  avria  sofFerto. 

Ma  perch'  io  mi  sarei  bruciato  e  cotto,  49 

Vinse  paura  la  mia  buona  voglia, 
Che  di  loro  abbracciar  mi  facea  ghiotto. 

Poi  cominciai:  *Non  dispetto,  ma  doglia        52 
La  vostra  condizion  dentro  mi  fisse 
Tanto  che  tardi  tutta  si  dispoglia, 

Consider  first  the  initials  of  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine: 

43        E 
46       s 

49  M 

52  P 

Read:  spem 


278      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF   DANTE 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  first  three  terzine: 

43       E 
46       s 

49         MA    PER 

Read:  peremas 

Notice  that  the  passage  begins  with  Ed  io  and  that  it  is 
bounded  on  the  first  and  last  lines  by  the  following  marginal 
letters: 

43       ED 

54         TAN 

Read:  dante 

There  may  be  an  additional  hint  in  the  words  mi  fissi 
tanto,  lines  53-54,  as  if  meaning  that  Dante  fixes  his  signature 
here. 

The  following  passage.  Inf.  xviii.  34-54,  consists  of  seven 
terzine: 

Di  qua,  di  la,  su  per  lo  sasso  tetro  34 

Vidi  Demon  cornuti  con  gran  ferze, 

Che  li  battean  crudelmente  di  retro. 
Ahi  come  facean  lor  levar  le  berze  37 

Alle  prime  percosse!  gia,  nessuno 

Le  seconde  aspettava  ne  le  terze. 
Mentr'  io  andava,  gli  occhi  miei  in  uno  40 

Furo  scontrati;  ed  io  si  tosto  dissi: 

'Di  gia  veder  costui  non  son  digiuno.' 
Percio  a  figurarlo  i  piedi  affissi:  43 

E  il  dolce  Duca  meco  si  ristette, 

Ed  assent!  ch'  alquanto  indietro  gissi: 
E  quel  frustato  celar  si  credette  46 

Bassando  il  viso,  ma  poco  gli  valse: 

Ch'  io  dissi:  'Tu  che  1'  occhio  a  terra  gette, 
Se  le  fazion  che  porti  non  son  false,  49 

Venedico  se'  tu  Caccianimico; 

Ma  che  ti  mena  a  si  pungenti  Salse?' 
Ed  egli  a  me:  'Mai  volentier  lo  dico;  52 

Ma  sforzami  la  tua  chiara  favella, 

Che  mi  fa  sovvenir  del  mondo  antico. 


THE    SEAL  279 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 

34    DI  QUA 

37   A 

40    MENTR 

43    P 
46    E 

49   S 
52    E 

Read:  peremas  qui  dante 

Notice  that  the  passage  begins  with  the  words  di  qua^  and 
that  the  passage  is  bounded  by  the  initials  of  the  first  and 
the  last  terzine:  de,  and  that  the  first  line  of  the  last  terzina 
begins  with  ed. 

Those  who  regard  Dante  as  too  serious  to  descend  to  verbal 
tricks  will  note  that  salse  in  line  51  has  long  been  recognized 
as  a  pun  on  the  proper  name  of  the  ravine  where  the  bodies 
of  criminals  were  thrown  and  the  word  for  "pickle." 

The  following  passage  is  Par.  xxiii.  13-24: 

Si  che  veggendola  io  sospesa  e  vaga,  13 

Fecimi  qual  e  quei,  che  disiando 

Altro  vorna,  e  sperando  s'  appaga. 
Ma  poco  fu  tra  uno  ed  altro  quando,  16 

Del  mio  attender,  dico,  e  del  vedere 

Lo  ciel  venir  piu  e  piu  rischiarando: 
E  Beatrice  disse:  'Ecco  le  schiere  19 

Del  trionfo  di  Cristo,  e  tutto  il  frutto 

Ricolto  del  girar  di  queste  spere.' 
Pareami  che  il  suo  viso  ardesse  tutto,  22 

E  gli  occhi  avea  di  letizia  si  pieni, 

Che  passar  mi  convien  senza  costrutto. 

Consider  first  the  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  the  terzine: 
13       s 

16         M 
19  E 

22  P 

Read:  spem 


28o      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  these  four 
lines: 

16         M 
19  E 

2  2  PARE 

Read:  peremas 

Notice  that  if  e,  the  fourth  letter  of  line  22,  is  omitted  the 
marginal  letters  read:  sperma. 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xxxiii.  67-90,  consists  of  eight 
terzine: 

E  se  stati  non  fossero  acqua  d'  Elsa  67 

Li  pensier  vani  intorno  alia  tua  mente, 

E  il  placer  loro  un  Piramo  alia  gelsa, 
Per  tante  circostanze  solamente  70 

La  giustizia  di  Dio  nello  interdetto 

Conosceresti  all'  arbor  moralmente. 
Ma  perch'  io  veggio  te  nello  intelletto  73 

Fatto  di  pietra,  ed,  impietrato,  tinto 

Si  che  t'  abbaglia  il  lume  del  mio  detto, 
Voglio  anco,  e  se  non  scritto,  almen  dipinto,       76 

Che  il  te  ne  porti  dentro  a  te,  per  quello 

Che  si  reca  il  bordon  di  palma  cinto.' 
Ed  io:  'Si  come  cera  da  suggello,  79 

Che  la  figura  impressa  non  trasmuta, 

Segnato  e  or  da  voi  Io  mio  cervello. 
Ma  perche  tanto  sopra  mia  veduta  82 

Vostra  parola  disiata  vola, 

Che  piu  la  perde  quanto  piu  s'  aiuta?' 
'Perche  conoschi,'  disse,  'quella  scuola  85 

Ch'  hai  seguitata,  e  veggi  sua  dottrina 

Come  puo  segiiitar  la  mia  parola; 
E  veggi  vostra  via  dalla  divina  88 

Distar  cotanto,  quanto  si  discorda 

Da  terra  il  ciel  che  piu  alto  festina.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 


THE   SEAL 

67 

E 

7o 

PER 

73 

MA 

76 

V 

79 

ED    10    SI 

82 

MA 

85 

PER 

88 

E    V 

281 


There  is  an  extraordinary  symmetry  in  this  passage  which 
appears  from  the  fact  that  the  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
three  terzine  spell:  perema,  and  the  marginal  letters  of  the 
last  three  terzine  spell:  perema.  Read  first  on  the  marginal 
letters  of  the  first  lines  of  the  terzine,  67-79:  peremas  vi 
ED  10.  Now  read  on  the  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine,  79-88:  peremas  vi  ed  10.  These  two  readings 
key  on  the  marginal  letters  of  line  79.  Ed  10  is,  of  course, 
Dante's  signature. 

This  passage  follows  the  enigma  forie  and  the  allusion  to 
the  Sphinx.  There  are  several  distinct  references  in  the 
passage  to  a  hidden  meaning.  Beatrice  tells  Dante  that  his 
intellect  \s  fatto  di  pietra^  and  that  the  light  of  her  speech 
dazzles  him.  Moreover,  in  the  terzina  preceding  the  passage 
quoted,  she  says,  line  64,  dorme  lo  ingegno  tuo,  with  the 
implication  that  on  account  of  his  sleeping  wits  Dante  is 
unable  to  understand  the  hidden  meaning  of  her  words. 

There  are  two  expressions  in  the  passage  under  consider- 
ation in  which  I  find  a  direct  reference  to  the  cryptographic 
device  which  the  passage  contains.  The  first  is  the  command 
of  Beatrice  that  Dante  bear  in  mind  her  words,  which  he  is 
unable  to  understand: 

per  quelle 
Che  si  reca  il  bordon  di  palma  cinto. 

The  word  bordon  has  a  double  meaning;  it  means,  first, 
"pilgrim's  staff,"  and  it  means  also  "margin."  In  obedience 
to  this  command  Dante  carries  away  the  words  of  Beatrice, 
as  recorded  in  the  text,  with  the  margin  di  palma  cinto — 


282      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

wreathed,  that  is,  with  the  curves  of  the  curiously  sym- 
metrical acrostic. 

The  second  expression  in  the  text  in  which  I  find  a  distinct 
allusion  to  the  cryptographic  device  is  the  reply  of  Dante  to 
the  command  of  Beatrice;  he  replies  that  his  brain  is  now 
stamped  with  her 

Si  come  cera  da  suggello, 
Che  la  figura  impressa  non  trasmuta. 

Now  this  impression  of  a  figure  stamped  on  Dante's  brain  is 
symbolized  by  the  peremas  on  lines  79-88,  which  repeats  the 
PEREMAS  on  lines  67-79.  Moreover,  this  peremas,  since  it  is 
come  cera  da  suggello^  reverses  the  form  of  the  first  peremas, 
without,  as  the  text  suggests,  "transmuting"  it.  This  re- 
versal of  the  form  of  the  figure  in  its  imprint  is  accurately 
paralleled  by  the  letters  perema  which  appear  respectively 
on  lines  67-73  ^^<^  Xw^^^  82-88.  The  figure  first  appears  thus: 

67       e 
70       per 
73       ma 

The  cryptographic  "impression"  of  this  figure,  which  must 
necessarily  be  reversed,  appears  thus: 

82       ma 
85       per 
88       e 

Notice  that  the  passage  in  which  this  cryptographic 
complex  is  found  is  bounded  by  the  initial  e  of  the  first  line, 
67,  and  the  initial  d  of  the  last  line,  90. 

The  suggello  here  with  the  seal-like  acrostic  peremas 
suggests  the  sigillo  in  connection  with  per  me  si  va  (see 
pp.  224-5). 

The  following  passage.  Par.  vii.  1-27,  consists  of  nine 
terzine: 

Osanna  sanctus  Deus  Sabaoth, 
Superillustrans  claritate  tua 
Felices  ignes  horum  malachoth! 


THE    SEAL  283 

Cosi,  volgendosi  alia  nota  sua,  4 

Fu  viso  a  me  cantare  essa  sustanza, 

Sopra  la  qual  doppio  lume  s'  addua: 
Ed  essa  e  1'  altre  mossero  a  sua  danza,  7 

E  quasi  velocissime  faville, 

Mi  si  velar  di  subita  distanza. 
lo  dubitava,  e  dicea:  'Dille,  dille,'  10 

Era  me,  'dille,'  diceva,  'alia  mia  donna 

Che  mi  disseta  con  le  dolci  stille'; 
Ma  quella  riverenza  die  s'  indonna  13 

Di  tutto  me,  pur  per  BE  e  per  ICE, 

Mi  richinava  come  l'  uom  ch'  assonna. 
Poco  sofFerse  me  cotal  Beatrice,  16 

E  comincio,  raggiandomi  d'  un  riso 

Tal,  che  nel  foco  faria  l'  uom  Felice: 
'Secondo  mio  infallibile  avviso,  19 

Come  giusta  vendetta  giustamente 

Vengiata  fosse,  t'  ha  in  pensier  miso; 
Ma  io  ti  solvere  tosto  la  mente:  22 

E  tu  ascolta,  che  le  mie  parole 

Di  gran  sentenza  ti  faran  presente. 
Per  non  soffrire  alia  virtii  che  vuole  25 

Freno  a  suo  prode,  quell'  uom  che  non  nacque, 

Dannando  se,  danno  tutta  sua  prole; 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 


I 

0 

4 

c 

7 

E 

10 

I 

13 

MA    QUE 

16 

POC 

19 

SE 

22 

MA 

25 

PER 

The  marginal  letters  on  the  last  three  terzine  spell 
PEREMAS.  The  marginal  letters  on  the  first  six  terzine  spell 
Ecco    QUI    POEMA.    The    complete    reading,    therefore,    is 

PEREMAS.    ECCO    QUI    POEMA. 


284      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  sixth  terzina: 

1 6  PC 

17  E 

18  TA 

Read:  poeta 

This  entire  passage  is  an  intricacy  of  suggestive  double 
meaning.  In  lines  10  and  11  dille  is  thrice  repeated.  For  the 
development  of  the  important  cryptographic  play  on  this 
word  in  connection  with  the  name  of  Beatrice,  see  pp.  350-1. 

The  following  passage.  Par.  xiv.  133-139,  consists  of  the 
last  seven  lines  of  the  canto: 

Ma  chi  s'  avvede  che  i  vivi  suggelli  133 

D'  ogni  bellezza  piu  fanno  piu  suso, 
E  ch'  io  non  m'  era  li  rivolto  a  quelli, 

Escusar  puommi  di  quel  ch'  io  m'  accuso      136 
Per  escusarmi,  e  vedermi  dir  vero: 
Che  il  piacer  santo  non  e  qui  dischiuso, 

Perche  si  fa,  montando,  piu  sincero.  139 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  two  preceding  terzine: 


133 

MA 

136 

ES 

139 

PER 

PEREMAS 

Read; 

In  Purg.  xxxi.  98,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Asperges  me.  Like 
other  Latin  phrases  which  we  shall  examine  in  Chapter 
IX,  these  two  words  contain  a  cryptogram.  Consider  the 
following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


ASPERGES 

ASPER 

ME 

ME 

PEREMAS 

Read: 

These  words  occur  in  the  passage  which  describes  the 
bathing  of  Dante  by  Matelda.  For  an  explanation  of  the 
symbolism  of  this  bathing  see  page  364. 


THE   SEAL  285 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxiii.  55-66,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Se  mo  sonasser  tutte  quelle  lingue  55 

Che  Polinnia  con  le  suore  fero 

Del  latte  lor  dolcissimo  piu  pingue, 
Per  aiutarmi,  al  millesmo  del  vero  58 

Non  si  verria,  cantando  il  santo  riso, 

E  quanto  il  santo  aspetto  facea  mero. 
E  cosi,  figurando  il  Paradiso,  61 

Convien  saltar  lo  sacrato  poema, 

Come  chi  trova  suo  cammin  reciso. 
Ma  chi  pensasse  il  ponderoso  tema,  64 

E  r  omero  mortal  che  se  ne  carca, 

Nol  biasmerebbe,  se  sott'  esso  trema. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 


55 

s 

58 

PER 

61 

E 

64 

MA 

Read:  peremas 

The  acrostic  on  the  initials  is: 

55       s 
58       P 

61  E 

64  M 

Read:  spem 

Consider   the   following   marginal   letters   of  the   second 
terzina: 

58  PE 

59  N 

60  E 

Read:  pene 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  third  terzina: 


286      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

6i        E 

62  c 

63  CO 

Read:  ecco 

Consider   the   following   marginal    letters   of  the   fourth 
terzina: 

64  M 

65  E 

66  NO 
Read:  nome 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xiii.  64-81,  consists  of  six 
terzine: 

E  queste  contingenze  essere  intendo  64 

Le  cose  generate,  che  produce 

Con  seme,  e  senza  seme  il  ciel  movendo. 
La  cera  di  costoro,  e  chi  la  duce,  67 

Non  sta  d'  un  modo,  e  pero  sotto  il  segno 

Tdeale  poi  piu  e  men  traluce: 
Ond'  egli  avvien  ch'  un  medesimo  legno,  70 

Secondo  specie,  meglio  e  peggio  frutta; 

E  voi  nascete  con  diverso  ingegno. 
Se  fosse  a  punto  la  cera  dedutta,  73 

E  fosse  il  cielo  in  sua  virtu  suprema, 

La  luce  del  suggel  parrebbe  tutta; 
Ma  la  natura  la  da  sempre  scema,  76 

Similemente  operando  all'  artista, 

Ch'  ha  r  abito  dell'  arte,  e  man  che  trema. 
Pero  se  il  caldo  amor  la  chiara  vista  79 

Delia  prima  virtu  dispone  e  segna, 

Tutta  la  perfezion  quivi  s'  acquista. 

The  initial  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  the  first  four  terzine 
are: 

64  E 

67  L 

70       O 
73       s 
Read:  sole 


THE    SEAL  287 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  last  three  terzine: 


73 

SE 

76 

MA 

81 

PER 

PEREMAS 

Read: 

The  PEREMAS  and  the  sole  key  on  the  initial  s  of  line  73. 
Notice  that  the  marginal  letters  of  the  lines  in  which 
PEREMAS  is  found  also  spell  spem  or  sperma. 

Analogous  to  the  use  of  peremas,  as  an  anagram  for  e 
sperma,  to  express  the  sex  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Corn- 
media^  there  sometimes  occur,  in  cryptographic  form,  words 
expressing  copulation  and  fecundation,  such  as  pene,  and 
sole  as  a  symbol  of  pene.  Several  examples  have  already 
been  shown.  Other  examples  follow. 

Following  are  the  first  five  terzine  oi  Inf.  x: 

Ora  sen  va  per  un  secreto  calle 

Tra  il  muro  della  terra  e  li  martiri 

Lo  mio  Maestro,  ed  io  dopo  le  spalle. 
*0  virtu  somma,  che  per  gli  enipi  giri  4 

Mi  volvi,'  cominciai,  'com'  a  te  piace 

Parlami,  e  satisfammi  a'  miei  desiri. 
La  gente  che  per  li  sepolcri  giace  7 

Potrebbesi  veder?  gia  son  levati 

Tutti  i  coperchi,  e  nessun  guardia  face.' 
Ed  egli  a  me:  'Tutti  saran  serrati,  10 

Quando  di  JosafFat  qui  torneranno 

Coi  corpi  che  lassu  hanno  lasciati. 
Suo  cimitero  da  questa  parte  hanno  13 

Con  Epicuro  tutti  i  suoi  seguaci, 

Che  r  anima  col  corpo  morta  fanno. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  are: 
I       o 

4       o 
7       L 

10         E 

13       S 
Read: o  sole 


288      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  first  four  initials  also  read  o  leo. 

There  may  be  a  hint  in  secreto  calle^  line  i.  Sole  and  leo 
may  echo,  as  symbols,  the  sense  of  0  virtu  somma^  addressed 
to  Virgil. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines  of  the 
first  terzina: 

1  o 

2  T 

3  LO 

Read:  loto 

Loto  is  used,  like  the  English  "clay,"  to  designate  mankind. 
The  same  word  is  found  in  the  first  lines  of /«/.  ii,  see  p.  42. 

The  following  passage,  Inj.  x.  ii-i^i^^  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

*0  Tosco,  che  per  la  citta  del  foco  22 

Vivo  ten  vai  cosi  parlando  onesto, 

Piacciati  di  restare  in  questo  loco. 
La  tua  loquela  ti  fa  manifesto  25 

Di  quella  nobil  patria  natio, 

Alia  qual  forse  io  fui  troppo  molesto.' 
Subitamente  questo  suono  uscio  28 

D'  una  deir  arche:  pero  m'  accostai, 

Temendo,  un  poco  piu  al  duca  mio. 
Ed  ei  mi  disse:  'Volgiti:  che  fai  ?  31 

Vedi  la  Farinata  che  s'  e  dritto: 

Dalla  cintola  in  su  tutto  il  vedrai.' 

The  initial  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  are: 
22       o 
25       L 
28       s 

Read: sole 

Notice  that  the  passage  with  the  acrostic  sole  begins  with 
the  words  0  Tosco^  addressed  to  Dante.  Dante  thus  identifies 
himself  with  the  sun,  as  a  symbol  of  his  power  to  penetrate 
the  city  of  Hell,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  womb. 


THE    SEAL  289 

The  following  passage,  Inj.  xxiv.  43-54,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

La  lena  m'  era  del  polmon  si  munta  43 

Quando  fui  su,  ch'  io  non  potea  piij  oltre, 

Anzi  mi  assisi  nella  prima  giunta. 
*Omai  convien  che  tu  cosi  ti  spoltre,'  46 

Disse  il  Maestro,  'che  sedendo  in  piuma 

In  fama  non  si  vien,  ne  sotto  coltre, 
Senza  la  qual  chi  sua  vita  consuma,  49 

Cotal  vestigio  in  terra  di  se  lascia, 

Qual  fummo  in  aer  ed  in  acqua  la  schiuma: 
E  pero  leva  su,  vinci  1'  ambascia  52 

Con  r  animo  che  vince  ogni  battaglia, 

Se  col  suo  grave  corpo  non  s'  accascia. 

The  initial  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  the  terzine  are: 

43  L 

46  o 

49  s 

52  E 

Read:  sole 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxxiii.  124-126,  consists  of 
one  terzina: 

O  luce  eterna,  che  sola  in  te  sidi, 
Sola  t'  intendi,  e  da  te  intelletta 
Ed  intendente  te,  ami  ed  arridi! 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines  of  this 
terzina: 

124  o  L 

125  s 

126  E 

Read:  sole 

This  SOLE  coincides  with  the  sense  of  the  text:  0  luce 
eterna.  The  first  word  of  the  last  line,  Ed,  suggests  a  cryptic 
identification  of  Dante  with  sole.  For  the  extraordinary 
complex  of  cryptograms  in  the  passage  that  includes  these 
lines  see  Chapter  III,  pp.  106-11. 


290      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  xv.  1 18-129,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Lo  Duca  mio,  che  mi  potea  vedere  118 

Far  si  com'  uom  che  dal  sonno  si  slega, 

Disse:  'Che  hai,  che  non  ti  puoi  tenere? 
Ma  se'  venuto  piu  che  mezza  lega  121 

Velando  gli  occhi,  e  con  le  gambe  avvolte 

A  guisa  di  cui  vino  o  sonno  piega?' 
'O  dolce  Padre  mio,  se  tu  m'  ascolte,  124 

lo  ti  diro,'  diss'  io,  'cio  che  mi  apparve 

Quando  le  gambe  mi  furon  si  tolte,' 
Ed  ei:  'Se  tu  avessi  cento  larve  127 

Sopra  la  faccia,  non  mi  sarien  chiuse 

Le  tue  cogitazion,  quantunque  parve. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine: 

118  LO 

121  M 

124  O 

127  ED 

Read:  l'omo  ed 

Now  consider  the  initials  of  the  same  hnes: 
118       L 

121         M 

124       O 

127  E 

Read:  lome 

Lome^  as  a  form  oi  lume^  is  used  by  Dante,  InJ.  x.  69.  Thus 
by  the  cryptographic  device  of  a  double  acrostic  on  the  same 
lines,  Dante,  as  "the  man,"  associates  himself  with  light  as 
the  symbol  of  the  male  power.  Consonant  with  the  acrostic 
LOME  are  the  words:  vedere^  118,  and,  line  122,  velando  gli 
occhi.  Notice  also,  as  hinting  at  a  cryptographic  concealment, 
the  words:  larve  sopra  la  faccia^  lines  127-128.  For  the  one 
other  use  oi larve  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  and  the  cryptogram 
which  appears  in  the  passage.  Par.  xxx.  91-99,  see  p.  138. 

Confirming  the  acrostic  lome  as  the  symbol  of  the  pene- 


THE   SEAL  291 

trating  power  of  l'omo  ed  is  the  acrostic  on  the  three  lines  of 
the  last  terzina  of  the  passage.  Consider  on  these  lines  the 
following  marginal  letters: 


127 

E 

128 

SO 

129 

L 

SOLE 

Read: 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xix.  40-51,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Poi  comincio:  'Colui  che  volse  il  sesto  40 

Air  estremo  del  mondo,  e  dentro  ad  esso 

Distinse  tanto  occulto  e  manifesto, 
Non  pote  suo  valor  si  fare  impresso  43 

In  tutto  r  universe,  che  il  suo  verbo 

Non  rimanesse  in  infinito  eccesso. 
E  cio  fa  certo  che  il  primo  superbo,  46 

Che  fu  la  somma  d'  ogni  creatura, 

Per  non  aspettar  lume,  cadde  acerbo: 
E  quinci  appar  ch'  ogni  minor  natura  49 

E  corto  recettacolo  a  quel  bene 

Che  non  ha  fine,  e  se  con  se  misura. 

Consider  the  initial  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  these  four 
terzine: 

40       p 

43       N 

46  E 

49        E 
Read:  pene 

The  acrostic  pene  read  in  connection  with  the  passage  in 
which  it  appears  makes  the  passage  fairly  bristle  with  double 
meanings.  Note  especially  the  reference  to  tutto  runiverso^ 
line  44,  the  female  form  in  which  non  pote  suo  valor  si  fare 
impresso.  Notice  also  the  allusion  to  the  fall  of  the  primo 
superbo,  line  46.  I  leave  the  reader  to  work  out  for  himself 
the  further  implications  of  the  passage  in  the  light  of  the 
acrostic  pene. 


292      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Following  is  one  terzina,  Purg.  xiv.  10-12: 

E  disse  1'  uno:  'O  anima,  che  fitta 
Nel  corpo  ancora  in  ver  lo  ciel  ten  vai, 
Per  carita  ne  consola,  e  ne  ditta 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines  of  this 
terzina: 

10  E 

11  N 

12  PE 

Read:  pene 

Notice  the  sense  of  the  text  as  confirming  this  acrostic 
PENE.  The  soul  IS  fifta  ne/  corpo y  and  is  going  thus  to  Heaven. 
This  is  exactly  the  symbolism  of  the  entire  Divina  Commedia, 
in  which  Dante  uses  for  the  symbol  of  his  journey  to  Heaven 
the  PENE  in  the  female  body  of  the  universe. 

The  following  passage,  Par.  x.  146-148,  consists  of  the  last 
three  lines  of  the  canto: 

Moversi  e  render  voce  a  voce  in  tempra 
Ed  in  dolcezza  ch'  esser  non  puo  nota, 
Se  non  cola  dove  gioir  s'  insempra. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines: 

146  M 

147  E 

148  SE 

Read:  seme 

La  sposa  di  Dio  appears  in  the  passage  immediately  pre- 
ceding, line  140. 

The  following  passage  is  Par.  xxiii.  1-3: 

Come  r  augello  intra  1'  amate  fronde, 
Posato  al  nido  dei  suoi  dolci  nati, 
La  notte  che  le  cose  ci  nasconde. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines: 


THE   SEAL  293 

1  CO 

2  PO 

3  LA 

Read:  copola 

The  sense  of  the  acrostic  is  consistent  with  the  impli- 
cations of  the  text. 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxiii.  109-120,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Cosi  la  circulata  melodia  109 

Si  sigillava,  e  tutti  gli  altri  lumi 

Facean  sonar  lo  nome  di  Maria. 
Lo  real  manto  di  tutti  i  volumi  II2 

Del  mondo,  che  piu  ferve  e  piu  s'  avviva 

Neir  alito  di  Dio  e  nei  costumi, 
Avea  sopra  di  noi  l'  interna  riva  115 

Tanto  distante,  che  la  sua  parvenza 

La  dov'  io  era  ancor  non  m'  appariva. 
Pero  non  ebber  gli  occhi  miei  potenza  118 

Di  seguitar  la  coronata  fiamma, 

Che  si  levo  appresso  sua  semenza. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines 
of  the  four  terzine: 

109  cosi 

112  LO 

IIS  A 

118  P 

Read:  si  copola 

Lo  real  manto.,  line  112,  is,  as  usually  interpreted,  the  ninth 
Heaven.  It  is  also  the  symbol  of  the  womb,  as  its  number 
suggests,  and  as  the  text  explicitly  develops.  Immediately 
preceding  the  words  lo  real  manto  is  the  phrase:  sonar  lo  nome 
di  Maria.  The  passage  ends  with  the  words  sua  semenza^  "her 
offspring."  And  following  the  passage  is  the  figure  of  the  child 
and  its  mother.  On  the  four  lines  following  lo  real  manto 
consider  the  following  marginal  letters: 


294      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF    DANTE 


113 

DE 

114 

N 

115 

A 

116 

T 

DANTE 

Read; 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxvi.  1 33-1 42,  consists  of  the 
last  ten  lines  of  the  canto: 

Pria  ch'  io  scendessi  all'  infernale  ambascia,       133 

/  s'  appellava  in  terra  il  Sommo  Bene, 

Onde  vien  la  letizia  che  mi  fascia; 
El  si  chiamo  da  poi,  e  cio  conviene,  136 

Che  r  uso  de'  mortali  e  come  fronda 

In  ramo,  che  sen  va  ed  altra  viene. 
Nel  monte  che  si  leva  piu  dall'  onda,  139 

Fu'  io  con  vita  pura  e  disonesta 

Daila  prim'  ora  a  quella  che  seconda, 
Come  il  sol  muta  quadra,  1'  ora  sesta.'  142 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


133 

p 

136 

E 

139 

NE 

142 

COME 

Read:  come  pene 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  lines 
which  give  the  two  names  of  God: 

134  I  s 

135  o 

136  EL 

Read:  elios 

Next  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  two 
lines  of  the  passage: 

141  DA 

142  CO 
Read:  coda 


THE    SEAL  295 

The  significance  of  this  acrostic  coda  becomes  more  clear 
if  it  is  read  in  connection  with  the  acrostic  on  the  first  four 
terzine  of  the  next  canto,  Par.  xxvii.  1-12: 

*Al  Padre,  al  Figho,  alio  Spirito  Santo' 

Comincio  'Gloria'  tutto  il  Paradiso, 

Si  che  m'  inebbriava  il  dolce  canto. 
Cio  ch'  io  vedeva  mi  sembiava  un  riso  4 

Deir  universo;  per  che  mia  ebbrezza 

Entrava  per  1'  udire  e  per  lo  viso. 
O  gioia!  o  inefFabile  allegrezza!  7 

O  vita  intera  d'  amore  e  di  pace! 

0  senza  brama  sicura  ricchezza! 

Dinanzi  agli  occhi  miei  le  quattro  face  10 

Stavano  accese,  e  quella  che  pria  venne 
Incomincio  a  farsi  piij  vivace; 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  four  terzine  are: 

1  A 

4       c 
7       o 

10  D 

Read:  coda 

The  foregoing  acrostics  should  be  considered  together. 
Dante  is  identifying  the  early  names  of  God,  /  and  £/,  with 
his  symbols,  pene  and  sole  and  with  the  God  of  the  Chris- 
tian Trinity.  The  passage  at  the  end  of  Par.  xxvi  is  full  of 
sex  symbolism.  The  descent  into  the  infernale  ambascia,  line 
133,  suggests  copulation.  The  monte  che  si  leva  repeats  the 
meaning  of  the  acrostic  come  pene.  There  may  be  a  sug- 
gestion of  copulation  in  the  two  acrostic  readings:  coda. 
The  symbolism  of  the  sun  as  God,  which  appears  in  the 
acrostic  elios,  is  carried  out  in  // jo/,  Par.  xxvi.  142.  Elios  is 
a  word  which  Dante  uses.  Par.  xiv.  96;  it  may  be  formed  from 
the  Hebrew  Eli  or  the  Greek  77X105.  The  sun,  as  Dante  says, 
Par.  X.  28,  is 

Lo  ministro  maggior  della  natura. 

The  story  of  Ugolino,  Inj.  xxxiii,  contains  cryptograms 
which  indicate  the  phallic  symbolism  of  light  in  connection 


296      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

with  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  tower.  Note  first  the  four 
terzin^,  InJ.  xxxiii.  46-57: 

Ed  io  sentii  chiavar  1'  uscio  di  sotto  46 

Air  orribile  torre;  ond'  io  guardai 
Nel  viso  a'  miei  figluioi  senza  far  motto. 

Io  non  piangeva;  si  dentro  impietrai:  49 

Piangevan  elli;  ed  Anselmuccio  mio 
Disse:  "Tu  guardi  si,  padre:  che  hai?" 

Percio  non  lagrimai,  ne  rispos'  io  52 

Tutto  quel  giorno,  ne  la  notte  appresso, 
Infin  che  1'  altro  sol  nel  mondo  uscio. 

Come  un  poco  di  raggio  si  fu  messo  55 

Nel  doloroso  carcere,  ed  io  scorsi 
Per  quattro  visi  il  mio  aspetto  stesso; 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  four  terzine: 


46 

ED    ID 

49 

10 

52 

P 

55 

CO 

COPIO.    ED    10 

Read; 

Now  what  is  it  that,  as  Dante  says  in  the  acrostic,  he 
copies?  The  answer  to  this  question  reveals  the  fundamental 
reason  for  Dante's  introduction  into  the  Divina  Commedia  of 
the  story  of  Ugolino.  It  was  not  enough  for  Dante  that  the 
story  is  touching  in  its  literal  aspect;  he  must  make  it  serve, 
just  as  he  makes  every  other  detail  of  the  poem  serve,  his 
symbolic  purpose.  Reduced  to  its  briefest  terms,  the  story  is 
as  follows:  Ugolino,  together  with  his  four  sons,  is  shut  up  in 
a  tower.  The  key  was  turned  in  the  lower  entrance  of  the 
tower  and  the  five  were  left  to  starve  to  death.  This  story  is 
used  by  Dante  as  a  symbol  of  the  entire  theme  of  Inferno^ 
at  the  end  of  which  it  appears.  The  first  step  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  story  depends  on  the  recognition  of  the 
widespread  use  of  the  tower  as  a  symbol  of  the  mother.  The 
mother  symbolism  of  the  tower  appears  in  the  association  of 
the  tower  with  the  Shulamite  in  the  Song  of  Songs,  as  was 


THE    SEAL  297 

commonly  recognized  by  the  Christian  symbolists  of  the 
Middle  Ages;  and  the  same  symbolism  was  recognized,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  in  connection  with  the  Tower  of  Babel. 
That  Dante  intends  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  tower  in 
which  Ugolino  and  his  sons  were  imprisoned  appears  from 
the  acrostic  on  the  terzina  in  which  the  tower  is  first  men- 
tioned, Inf.  xxxiii.  22-24: 

Breve  pertugio  dentro  dalla  muda 

La  qual  per  me  ha  il  titol  della  fame, 

E  in  che  conviene  ancor  ch'  altri  si  chiuda, 

Consider  on  these  three  lines  the  following  marginal  letters: 

22  B 

23  LA    QUAL 

24  E 

Read:  qua  bella 

According  to  this  acrostic,  therefore,  the  tower  is  asso- 
ciated with  Bella,  the  mother  of  Dante. 

The  mother  symbolism  of  the  tower  is  further  implied  in  an 
acrostic  on  the  lines  55-57,  describing  the  entrance  into  the 
tower  of  a  poco  di  raggio. 

Consider  on  these  Hnes  the  following  marginal  letters: 

55  COME 

56  NE 

57  PE 
Read:  come  pene 

This  acrostic  confirms  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  tower 
by  implication,  since  it  shows  that  the  light  which  pene- 
trates the  tower  is  to  be  interpreted  as  a  phallic  symbol. 
It  follows  from  the  phallic  symbolism  of  the  light  which 
penetrates  the  tower  that  the  tower  must  be  a  female  symbol. 

In  the  tower  as  the  symbol  of  the  mother,  therefore,  the 
father  and  the  sons  are  enclosed  together,  as  in  the  biological 
situation  of  the  union  of  the  father  and  the  mother  in  the  act 
by  which  the  sons  are  conceived,  and  also  as  in  the  situation 
necessary  to  rebirth,  where  the  son,  like  the  father,  is  enclosed 


298      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

in  the  maternal  womb  by  an  act  of  union.  In  view  of  this 
symboHsm  of  the  tower  several  details  of  the  Ugolino  story 
take  on  a  new  significance.  Let  me  refer  especially  to  the  turn- 
ing of  the  key  in  the  uscio  di  sotto,  line  46;  the  key  is  phallic, 
the  uscio  di  sotto  represents  the  vulva,  and  the  interior  of  the 
tower  represents  the  uterus.  Thus  the  tower  is  a  reproduction 
in  miniature  of  Dante's  Hell,  the  prisoners  in  the  tower,  as 
in  the  womb,  correspond  to  the  souls  of  the  damned,  and 
the  father  and  sons  together  in  the  same  womb  express  the 
incest  and  rebirth  symbolism  of  the  poem.  The  astronomical 
allusions  in  the  story  of  Ugolino,  to  the  moons,  line  26,  and 
to  the  rising  sun,  line  54,  and  the  allusion  to  the  muda^  lines 
22-23,  ^s  having  il  titol  della  fame,  confirm  the  mother  and 
rebirth  symbolism  of  the  story,  which  must  be  understood 
as  a  sort  of  summary  of  the  whole  Inferno. 

The  symbolism  of  the  story  of  Ugolino  is  the  fundamental 
determinant  for  Dante's  use  of  it  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 
And  a  similar  determinant  is  to  be  assigned  for  the  use  of 
every  episode  in  the  poem.  Let  me  illustrate  by  a  reference  to 
the  story  of  Paolo  and  Francesca  and  the  story  of  Ulysses. 
In  regard  to  the  story  of  Paolo  and  Francesca  I  need  only 
point  out  that  it  is  a  story  implying  incest,  as  in  the  love 
between  brother  and  sister  (sister-in-law).  I  have  already 
referred,  in  connection  with  the  further  sex  symbolism  of 
this  story,  to  the  correspondence  of  the  winds  on  which  the 
souls  of  the  lovers  are  borne  to  convulsive  vaginal  move- 
ments, and  also,  perhaps,  to  flatus  as  associated  with  primi- 
tive and  infantile  conceptions  of  anal  birth.  The  incest 
symbolism  of  the  story  of  Ulysses  is  developed  in  more  detail 
and  is  confirmed  by  some  interesting  acrostics.  According  to 
Ulysses'  account  of  his  last  journey  he  departed  from  Ithaca, 
his  home,  in  a  small  vessel,  and  sailed  through  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  and  the  western  ocean,  until  he  arrived  in  sight  of 
the  mountain  of  Purgatory,  where  he  was  overwhelmed  with 
a  storm  and  drowned.  To  understand  the  symbolism  under- 
lying the  story  of  the  "mad  flight"  of  Ulysses,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  vessel,  as  in  the  story  of  the  Ark,  and 
the  sea  are  among  the  preeminent  symbols  of  the  mother. 


THE    SEAL 


299 


The  mother  symbohsm  of  the  sea  and  of  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  has  already  been  developed  in  the  discussion  of  the 
maggior  valle.  The  mother  symbolism  of  the  mountain  of 
Purgatory,  at  which  the  journey  ends,  has  likewise  been 
developed  in  detail.  In  connection  with  the  sea  as  a  mother 
symbol,  sailing  the  sea,  or  travelling,  is  to  be  understood  as 
the  symbol  of  sexual  union.  It  represents,  indeed,  the  course 
of  SPERMA  through  the  maternal  body.  That  the  sea  is, 
indeed,  to  be  understood  as  a  symbol  of  the  mother  in  the 
"mad  flight"  of  Ulysses  is  curiously  but  distinctly  implied 
by  Ulysses  himself,  who  tells  how  he  could  not  be  restrained 
from  the  journey  by  his  ties  to  father,  son,  or  wife.  The 
omission  of  any  allusion  to  his  mother,  in  this  list  of  his  home 
ties,  is  unmistakably  a  hint  that  it  is  his  mother  who  is 
calling  him  from  the  sea.  So  important  is  the  sea  symbolism 
here,  and  the  symbolism  of  sailing  the  sea,  that  Dante  calls 
attention  to  it  by  acrostics  spelling  the  Greek  words  for 
"sea"  and  "I  sail." 

The  story  of  Ulysses  appears  in  Inf.  xxvi.  Lines  70-81  of 
this  canto  are  as  follows: 

Ed  egli  a  me:  'La  tua  preghiera  e  degna         70 

Di  molta  lode,  ed  io  pero  1'  accetto; 

Ma  fa  che  la  tua  lingua  si  sostegna. 
Lascia  parlare  a  me:  ch'  Io  ho  concetto  73 

Cio  che  tu  vuoi:  ch'  ei  sarebbero  schivi, 

Perch'  ei  fur  Greci,  forse  del  tuo  detto.' 
Poiche  la  fiamma  fu  venuta  quivi,  76 

Dove  parve  al  mio  Duca  tempo  e  loco, 

In  questa  forma  lui  parlare  audivi: 
'O  voi,  che  siete  due  dentro  ad  un  foco,  79 

S'  io  meritai  di  voi  mentre  ch'  io  vissi, 

S'  io  meritai  di  voi  assai  o  poco. 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  the  terzine  are: 

70         E 

73       L 
76       P 
79       o 
Read:  pleo 


300      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

nXeco  is  Greek  for  "I  sail." 

Now   in   connection   with    this   acrostic    fled   read   hnes 
85-96,  in  which  Ulysses  begins  the  story  of  his  voyage: 

Lo  maggior  corno  della  fiamma  antica         85 

Comincio  a  crollarsi  mormorando, 

Pur  come  quella  cui  vento  affatica. 
Indi  la  cima  qua  e  la  menando,  88 

Come  fosse  la  lingua  che  parlasse, 

Gitto  voce  di  fuori,  e  disse:  'Quando 
Mi  diparti'  da  Circe,  che  sottrasse  91 

Me  piu  d'  un  anno  la.  presso  a  Gaeta, 

Prima  che  si  Enea  la  nominasse; 
Ne  dolcezza  di  figlio,  ne  la  pieta  94 

Del  vecchio  padre,  ne  il  debito  amore, 

Lo  qual  dovea  Penelope  far  lieta, 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 

85        L 
88       I 

91  M 

94  NE 

Read:  limne 

Atjui'Tj  is  Homeric  Greek  for  "sea."  It  may  be  that  Dante's 
alleged  ignorance  of  Greek  has  been  too  much  insisted  on. 

Following  are  the  last  ten  lines  of  Par.  xxii: 

Quindi  m'  apparve  il  temperar  di  Giove  145 

Tra  il  padre  e  il  figlio;  e  quindi  mi  fu  chiaro 

II  variar  che  fanno  di  lor  dove. 
E  tutti  e  sette  mi  si  dimostraro  148 

Quanto  son  grandi,  e  quanto  son  veloci, 

E  come  sono  in  distante  riparo. 
L'  aiuola  che  ci  fa  tanto  feroci,  151 

Volgendom'  io  con  gli  eterni  Gemelli, 

Tutta  m'  apparve  dai  colli  alle  foci: 
Poscia  rivolsi  gli  occhi  agli  occhi  belli.  154 

Consider  the  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of  the  canto 
and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


THE    SEAL  301 

145       QUI 

148  E 
151  L 
154    PO 

Read:  qui  pleo 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  viii.  58-69,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

'O,'  diss'  io  lui,  'per  entro  i  lochi  tristi  58 

Venni  stamane,  e  sono  in  prima  vita, 
Ancor  che  1'  altra  si  andando  acquisti.' 

E  come  fu  la  mia  risposta  udita,  61 

Sordello  ed  egli  indietro  si  raccolse, 
Come  gente  di  subito  smarrita. 

L'  uno  a  Virgilio,  e  1'  altro  ad  un  si  volse  64 

Che  sedea  li,  gridando:  *Su,  Corrado, 
Vieni  a  veder  che  Dio  per  grazia  volse.' 

Poi  volto  a  me:  'Per  quel  singular  grado,  67 

Che  tu  dei  a  colui,  che  si  nasconde 
Lo  sue  primo  perche,  che  non  gli  e  guado, 

The  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine  are: 
58      o 

61  E 

64  L 

67  P 

Read:  pleo 

The  idea  of  sailing  is  appropriate  to  Sordello's  words, 
lontane  acque  and  larghe  onde^  in  the  lines  immediately  pre- 
ceding and  following  this  passage. 

The  following  passage.  Inf.  x.  127-136,  consists  of  the  last 
ten  lines  of  the  canto: 

*La  mente  tua  conservi  quel  ch'  udito  127 

Hai  contra  te,'  mi  comando  quel  Saggio, 

'Ed  ora  attendi  qui:'  e  drizzo  il  dito. 
'Quando  sarai  dinanzi  al  dolce  raggio  130 

Di  quella  il  cui  bell'  occhio  tutto  vede, 

Da  lei  saprai  di  tua  vita  il  viaggio.' 


302      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Appresso  volse  a  man  sinistra  il  piede:  133 

Lasciammo  il  muro,  e  gimmo  in  ver  lo  mezzo 
Per  un  sentier  ch'  ad  una  valle  fiede, 

Che  infin  lassu  facea  spiacer  suo  lezzo.  136 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


127 

LA 

130 

QU 

133 

A 

136 

C 

l'acqua 

Read: 

This  word  appears  in  the  following  acrostic  reading  and 
relates  perhaps,  to  Dante's  water  symbolism. 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  vi.  76-87,  consists  of  four 
terzine: 

Ahi  serva  Italia,  di  dolore  ostello,  76 

Nave  senza  nocchiere  in  gran  tempesta, 
Non  donna  di  provincie,  ma  bordello! 

Quell'  anima  gentil  fu  cosi  presta,  79 

Sol  per  lo  dolce  suon  della  sua  terra, 
Di  fare  al  cittadin  suo  quivi  festa; 

Ed  ora  in  te  non  stanno  senza  guerra  82 

Li  vivi  tuoi,  e  1'  un  1'  altro  si  rode 
Di  quei  che  un  muro  ed  una  fossa  serra. 

Cerca,  misera,  intorno  dalle  prode  85 

Le  tue  marine,  e  poi  ti  guarda  in  seno 
Se  alcuna  parte  in  te  di  pace  gode. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  four  terzine: 

76  A 

79  QU 

82  E 

85  c 

Read:  acque 

Cf.  the  image  of  a  vessel  in  a  storm. 


THE   SEAL  303 

Further  cryptographic  confirmation  of  the  sex  symbolism 
of  the  journey  of  Dante,  as  phallus  and  sperma,  appears  in 
the  "gibberish"  which  Pluto  utters  at  the  approach  of 
Dante,  Inf.  vii.  i : 

Pape  Satan,  pape  Satan,  aleppe. 

Before  showing  the  cryptograms  contained  in  this  line,  let  us 
examine  the  possible  meaning  that  may  be  attached  to  the 
words  themselves. 

Pape  is  generally  recognized  as  the  Italian  equivalent  of 
the  Latin  papae,  an  interjection  used,  as  in  Boethius,  to 
express  astonishment.  Possibly  this  is  the  correct  inter- 
pretation, though  I  surmise  that  the  word  is  a  deformation, 
in  the  voce  chioccia  of  Pluto,  of  papa^  as  for  high  priest  and 
indeed  for  father,  Aleppe  is  recognized  as  aleph,  the  first 
letter  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet.  This  "a"  is  commonly  inter- 
preted as  another  exclamation,  like  the  English  or  Italian 
"Ah!"  Holbrook,  in  his  Dante  and  the  Animal  Kingdom^ 
suggests  that  aleppe  as  a  stands  here  for  Christ;  and  he  refers 
to  such  a  use  of  the  letter  in  patristic  literature.  In  the  opinion 
of  Holbrook,  then,  Pluto  is  using  the  name  of  Christ  as  a 
blasphemy:  "Ho,  Satan!  Ho,  Satan!  Christ!" 

I  agree  that  aleppe  stands  here  for  Christ,  but  the  word, 
I  am  convinced,  is  not  used  as  an  exclamation  of  blasphemy. 
Dante  is  descending  into  Hell  as  Christ  descended  into  Hell. 
Since  such  a  descent  into  Hell  by  a  living  man  was  quite 
Juor  del  modern  uso,  Pluto  mistakes  Dante  for  Christ  himself 
and  calls  a  warning  to  Satan,  from  whom  Christ  would 
naturally  be  supposed  to  be  coming  to  deliver  some  of  Satan's 
victims,  exactly  as  Christ  had  delivered  the  souls  of  the 
patriarchs  on  his  descent  into  Hell  after  the  crucifixion.  But 
it  is  not  wholly  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  Pluto,  for  Dante  is 
constantly  making  the  same  identification  himself. 

Of  the  highest  importance  for  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  the  reference,  in  the  words  here  addressed  to 
Pluto  by  Virgil,  to  the  sin  for  which  Satan,  or  Lucifer,  was 
punished  as  the  superbo  strupo.  The  "proud  adultery"  is  the 
original  sin  which  was  committed  first  by  the  divine  Lucifer, 


304      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

"son  of  the  morning"  and  in  reality  the  same  as  Christ;  and 
afterwards  repeated  by  Adam  and  Eve.  In  the  divine  group 
of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  adultery  is  necessarily 
incest.  The  descent  of  Christ  into  Hell  symbolizes  incest  as 
the  means  of  rebirth.  It  is  on  account  of  the  incest  symbolized 
by  the  descent  of  Christ  into  Hell  that  Pluto,  mistaking 
Dante  for  Christ,  calls  out  his  warning  to  Father  Satan. 
Satan,  who  was  the  incestuous  son  in  Heaven,  becomes  in 
Hell  the  father  against  whom  the  sin  is  again  committed,  and 
would  naturally  be  warned  ?is  father  against  the  son  who  is 
coming  to  commit  the  sin. 

The  symbolism  of  the  descent  of  Christ  into  Hell  is  plainly 
enough  indicated  in  Virgil's  reference  to  it,  Inf.  xii.  34-45: 

Or  vuo'  che  sappi,  che  1'  altra  fiata  34 

Ch'  io  discesi  quaggiu  nel  basso  inferno, 

Questa  roccia  non  era  ancor  cascata. 
Ma  certo  poco  pria,  se  ben  discerno,  37 

Che  venisse  Colui  che  la  gran  preda 

Levo  a  Dite  del  cerchio  superno, 
Da  tutte  parti  1'  alta  valle  feda  40 

Tremo  si,  ch'  io  pensai  che  1'  universo 

Sentisse  amor,  per  io  quale  e  chi  creda 
Piii  volte  il  mondo  in  Caos  converso:  43 

Ed  in  quel  punto  questa  vecchia  roccia 

Qui  ed  altrove  tal  fece  riverso. 

The  difficult  path  that  is  guarded  by  the  beast,  the  descent 
of  the  divine  son  into  the  foul  female  valley,  the  tremors  of 
love  in  it,  the  delivery  of  the  creatures  that  it  contained,  and 
the  chaos  to  which  that  love  reduces  the  world — such  are  the 
features  of  the  passage  that  make  it  unmistakably  recog- 
nizable as  the  expression  of  a  typical  phantasy  of  sexual 
union  with  the  mother  earth  and  rebirth. 

It  is  noteworthy,  in  connection  with  Dante's  account  of  the 
descent  of  Christ  into  Hell,  that  Eve,  "the  mother  of  all 
living,"  is  not  included  with  Adam  among  the  spirits  whom 
he  delivers  from  Hell.  The  fact  that  Eve  is  not  delivered  from 
Hell  confirms  my  identification  of  Hell  with  the  mother; 
Eve  cannot  be  delivered  from  Hell  since  Eve,  as  "  the  mother 


THE   SEAL  305 

of  all  living,"  and  Hell  are  one  and  the  same,  the  womb  from 
which  "the  children  of  God"  are  delivered. 

The  preceding  explanation  of  the  words  of  Pluto,  correct 
as  I  believe  it  to  be  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  only  partial;  it  does  not 
touch  the  meaning  of  the  line  as  a  cryptogram. 

Consider  in  the  words  of  Pluto  the  following  final  and 
contiguous  letters: 


PAPE 

E 

SATAN 

TAN 

PAPE 

E 

SATAN 

TAN 

ALEPPE 

ALEPPE 

Read:  ante,  ante,  aleppe 

If  a  D  were  added  to  each  ante,  the  reading  would  be: 

DANTE,  DANTE,  ALEPPE  (or  CHRISt). 

That  a  concealed  d  is  to  be  supplied  in  order  to  complete 
the  signature  appears  from  the  acrostic  on  the  first  four  lines 
of  the  canto: 

'Pape  Satan,  pape  Satan  aleppe,' 
Comincio  Pluto  colla  voce  chioccia. 
E  quel  Savio  gentil,  che  tutto  seppe, 

Disse  per  confortarmi:  *Non  ti  noccia 

Consider  on  these  Hnes  the  following  marginal  letters: 


Read: 


I 

PA 

2 

C 

3 

E 

4 

D 

PACE  D 

Thus  the  complete  telestic  reading  on  the  words  of  Pluto 
is:  DANTE,  DANTE,  CHRIST.  Dante  and  Christ  are  confused,  or, 
as  constantly  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  identified. 

There  is  another  telestic  reading  on  the  same  words. 
Consider  the  following  final  and  contiguous  letters: 


3o6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


PAPE 

PE 

SATAN 

N 

PAPE 

E 

SATAN 

N 

ALEPPE 

PE 

Read  down  on  the  first  three  words:  pene.  Read  up  on 
the  last  three  words:  pene.  The  two  readings  key  on  e  of 
the  third  word. 

Just  as  in  the  first  telestic  reading  Dante  and  Christ  are 
associated,  so  Dante  is  here  associated  with  pene.  Phallic 
symbolism  for  Christ  appears  in  his  well-known  symbols, 
the  fish  and  the  key. 

THE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN 

In  the  foregoing  analysis  of  Dante's  Hell,  Purgatory,  and 
Paradise,  I  have  shown  that  the  structure  of  each  of  these 
regions  corresponds  to  the  structure  of  the  female  body. 
And  I  have  also  shown  that  the  structure  of  the  female  body 
appears  in  each  of  these  regions  twice.  In  Hell  there  are, 
first,  the  interior  of  Hell  itself,  extending  from  the  surface 
of  the  northern  hemisphere  to  the  centre  of  the  earth,  and, 
second,  the  interior  that  extends  from  the  centre  of  the  earth 
to  the  surface  of  the  southern  hemisphere.  In  Purgatory 
there  are,  first,  the  Mountain  of  Purgatory,  and  second,  the 
Terrestrial  Paradise  that  crowns  the  mountain  of  Purgatory. 
In  Paradise  there  are,  first,  the  nine  moving  spheres,  and, 
second,  the  motionless  Empyrean  beyond  the  nine  moving 
spheres.  This  reduplication  of  the  female  structure  in  Hell, 
Purgatory,  and  Paradise,  respectively,  makes  each  of  these 
regions  in  itself  a  symbol  of  the  mother  in  her  dual  aspect  of 
good  and  evil,  the  good  aspect  of  retaining  the  child  in  her 
womb  and  the  evil  aspect  of  expelling  the  child.  Dante 
assigns,  as  I  have  shown,  the  same  dual  aspect  to  the  earth, 
dividing  as  he  does  the  surface  of  the  earth  between  the 
mother  symbol  of  land  and  the  mother  symbol  of  water. 

This  division  of  each  of  the  various  abodes  of  man.  Earth, 


THE    SEAL  307 

Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise,  into  two  parts  is  an  idea  that 
derives  from  sources  more  remote  than  Dante;  it  appears, 
indeed,  in  the  story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

Now  the  Garden  of  Eden,  as  the  region  in  which  man 
passed  the  first  period  of  his  life  on  earth,  is  simply  a  symbol 
for  the  womb,  and  the  happy  existence  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden  is  simply  the  life  of  the  child  in  the  womb  of  its  mother. 
The  expulsion  from  the  Garden  of  Eden,  which,  according  to 
the  account  of  Genesis,  was  due  to  the  sin  of  eating  of  the 
tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  corresponds  to  the 
expulsion  of  the  child  from  the  womb  in  delivery.  Thus  the 
Biblical  account  of  the  earth  at  the  time  of  Creation,  as 
divided  between  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  the  region  outside 
the  Garden  of  Eden,  is  exactly  analogous  to  Dante's  account 
of  Earth,  Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise,  respectively,  as  a 
symbol  of  the  dual  character  of  the  mother. 

That  the  story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  symbolizes  the  Hfe 
of  the  child  in  the  womb  appears  from  the  fact  that  in  this 
account  of  the  happy  condition  of  man  in  his  original  state, 
the  hunger  of  man,  as  in  the  intra-uterine  existence,  was 
satisfied  without  labor,  and  that  the  loss  of  the  happy 
condition  was  somehow  connected  with  the  acquiring  of 
consciousness,  as  in  the  eating  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge.  But  the  conception  of  the  perfect  life  as  the 
prenatal  life  in  the  womb  is  not  confined  to  the  story  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden.  It  appears,  indeed,  in  the  classical  myth  of 
the  Golden  Age,  as  described  by  Hesiod,  and  in  analogous 
myths  of  widely  scattered  races.  If  it  is  possible,  as  is  now 
often  maintained,  that  unconscious  memories  of  the  intra- 
uterine life  survive  in  the  adult  man,  the  wide-spread  con- 
ception of  the  intra-uterine  life  as  the  original  happy  state 
may  be  derived  from  these  memories.  But  in  any  event,  the 
precise  expression  of  this  conception  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
corresponds  to  a  universal  belief. 

Among  the  myths  of  the  original  happy  condition  of  man 
is  the  myth  that  the  original  human  beings  were  male  and 
female  in  the  same  body.  This  myth  of  androgynous  beings 
adds  another  confirmation  to  the  interpretation  of  the  story 


3o8      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

of  the  Garden  of  Eden  as  referring  to  intra-uterine  existence; 
for  in  the  period  of  pregnancy,  a  son  in  the  womb  of  his 
mother  might  easily  be  considered  to  form  with  the  mother  a 
single  being  that  is  both  male  and  female.  This  myth  of  an 
original  androgynous  being  survives,  in  a  modified  form, 
indeed,  in  the  Biblical  account  of  the  creation  of  man;  for  in 
the  account  of  the  creation  of  Eve  from  a  rib  of  Adam  it  is 
implied  that  Eve  had  existed  in  Adam  before  she  was 
separated  from  him. 

The  account  of  the  creation  of  Eve  is  obviously  obstetrical; 
it  is  consistent,  therefore,  with  the  myth  of  an  original 
androgynous  being,  in  that  the  male  Adam  is  here  portrayed 
in  the  female  role  of  giving  birth.  But  there  is  a  further 
implication  in  the  Biblical  account  of  the  creation  of  Eve  that 
is  of  the  highest  importance  for  the  interpretation  not  only 
of  the  symbolism  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  but  also  of  the 
symbolism  of  the  Divij^a  Commedia,  in  which,  as  I  believe, 
the  symbolism  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  is  consciously 
reproduced. 

The  Biblical  account  that  Eve  was  taken  from  the  body  of 
xAdam  is  simply  a  way  of  saying,  consistent  with  the  assumed 
priority  of  man,  that  Adam  was  taken  from  the  body  of  Eve. 
In  other  words,  Eve  is  to  be  understood  as  the  mother  of 
Adam,  exactly  like  the  Garden  of  Eden  itself,  in  which  she 
is  the  central  female  figure. 

This  is  not  the  place,  however,  to  develop  the  symbolism 
of  Eve  as  the  mother  of  Adam  in  detail.  Let  it  suflice  for  our 
purposes,  therefore,  to  recall  that  she  is  designated  as  "the 
mother  of  all  living,"  and  to  recognize  that  if  she  is  indeed 
to  be  understood  as  the  mother  of  Adam,  she  must  at  the 
same  time  be  understood  to  have  lived  in  an  incestuous 
relation  with  him.  What  I  wish  principally  to  show  at  present 
is  that,  whether  or  not  Eve  herself  be  the  mother  of  Adam, 
the  Garden  of  Eden  must  certainly  be  recognized  as  the 
symbol  of  the  mother  of  Adam,  and  that  his  expulsion  from 
the  Garden  of  Eden  was  due  to  a  sexual  fault  committed  in  it. 
This  fault,  therefore,  was  incestuous.  The  incestuous  char- 
acter of  the  fault  is  expressed  in  the  character  of  the  punish- 


THE    SEAL  309 

ment,  which  was  Adam's  expulsion  from  the  Garden,  as  in 
birth,  "to  till  the  ground  from  whence  he  was  taken." 
Punishment,  in  all  ancient  symbolism,  is  a  repetition  of  the 
sin  for  which  the  punishment  is  imposed;  for  Adam,  there- 
fore, to  be  doomed  to  till  the  ground  from  whence  he  was 
taken  means  that  he  was  doomed  to  till,  in  the  symbolic  sense 
of  the  word,  his  mother  Earth. 

After  the  expulsion  from  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  origi- 
nal happy  condition  of  man,  man  is  left  with  the  desire 
to  return  to  it;  and  the  desire  to  return  to  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  or  to  the  original  happy  condition,  is  the  desire  to 
return  to  the  mother— a  return  that  is  to  be  accomplished, 
in  the  symbolism  of  ancient  myth  and  religion,  by  an 
incestuous  reunion  that  shall  result  in  the  rebirth  of  the 
incestuous  son  in  the  womb  from  which  he  has  been  expelled. 
The  rebirth  symbolism  as  involving  a  return  to  the  intra- 
uterine existence,  an  existence  which  is  thus  to  be  recog- 
nized in  the  Hebrew  account  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  in  the 
classical  myth  of  the  Golden  Age,  and,  indeed,  in  many  myths 
of  original  happiness,  is  fundamental  in  the  symbolism  of 
the  Divina  Commedia. 

I  have  already  quoted,  as  expressing  in  general  terms 
Dante's  conception  of  the  universal  desire  to  return  to  the 
mother,  the  following  words  from  the  Convivio:  II  sommo 
desiderio  di  ciascuna  cosa,  e  prima  dalla  Natura  dato^  e  lo 
ritornare  al  suo  Principio.  The  importance  which  he  attaches 
to  this  idea  appears  from  the  fact  that  he  develops  it  with  the 
utmost  explicitness  in  his  commentary  on  the  canzone: 
Amor,  che  nella  mente  mi  ragiona,  Convivio  iii.  3.  I  urge  the 
reader  to  refer  to  this  passage,  as  the  importance  of  its 
implications  for  Dante's  mother  symbolism  can  scarcely  be 
exaggerated.  In  a  significant  phrase  in  this  passage  Dante  even 
ascribes  to  inanimate  nature  the  same  tendency  to  return  to 
its  source:  Le  corpora  composte  prima,  siccome  sono  le  miniere, 
hanno  amore  al  loco,  dove  la  loro  generazione  e  ordinata,  e  in 
quello  crescono,  e  da  quello  hanno  vigore  e  potenza. 

In  the  further  development  of  the  idea  in  the  same  passage, 
Dante  makes  use  of  an  ancient  myth  for  its  mother  symbol- 


3IO      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

ism.  This  myth  is  the  myth  of  Antaeus,  who  was  the  son  of 
the  earth.  In  the  struggle  between  Antaeus  and  Hercules 
Antaeus  lost  his  strength  whenever  Hercules  lifted  him  from 
the  earth;  he  regained  his  strength  every  time  Hercules  per- 
mitted him  to  touch  the  earth  again.  The  touching  of  the 
earth,  from  which  Antaeus  was  born,  was,  accordingly,  for 
Antaeus,  a  return  to  his  mother.  And  it  is  obvious  that  the 
use  of  this  myth,  as  symbolizing  incest  and  rebirth,  is 
conscious  and  deliberate  on  the  part  of  Dante,  for  it  occurs  in 
a  philosophic  analysis  in  prose  of  his  own  poetical  meaning. 
The  conscious  use  which  he  makes  of  this  myth  goes  far  to 
prove  that  he  has  the  same  conscious  and  deliberate  purpose 
in  the  use  of  all  the  myths  which  he  has  included  in  the 
Divina  Commedia.  It  proves,  indeed,  that  for  Dante  myths 
are  important  as  having  meaning,  and  that  all  the  myths 
which  he  includes  in  the  Divina  Commedia  must  be  con- 
sistently interpreted  to  show  the  meaning  which  Dante 
attaches  to  them. 


Chapter  VIII 
BEATRICE 


Chapter  VIII 
BEATRICE 


THE  identity  of  Beatrice  is  the  key  to  the  symbohsm  of 
the  Divina  Commedia.  For  a  general  discussion  of  the 
various  theories  as  to  her  identity  the  reader  may  refer  to 
the  essay  on  "Beatrice"  in  Moore's  Studies  in  Dante.  These 
theories  Moore  reduces  to  three  types,  which  he  designates 
respectively  as  the  historical,  the  ideal,  and  the  symbolical. 
The  advocates  of  these  types  he  designates  respectively  as 
Realists,  Idealists,  and  Symbolists. 

"The  Realists  (properly  so  called),"  says  Moore,  "main- 
tain that  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  was  none  other  than  the 
historical  Beatrice  Portinari,  transfigured  by  degrees  'from 
glory  to  glory'  in  the  imagination  of  the  poet,  till  her  image 
becomes  little  short  of  divine  .  .  .  But  there  are  certain 
spurious  Realists,"  he  adds,  with  the  emphasis  of  the 
orthodox,  "whom  we  feel  tempted  to  call  'Separatists,'  who 
admit  that  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  was  a  real  contemporary 
person  whom  Dante  loved,  perhaps  called  Beatrice,  perhaps 
not;  but  maintain  that  she  was  in  any  case  a  separate  person 
from  Beatrice  Portinari:  admitting,  however,  that  beyond 
that  negative  assertion  nothing  more  can  now  be  known,  or 
even  guessed,  concerning  her," 

According  to  the  "Idealists,"  "the  Beatrice  of  Dante  is 
merely  'la  donna  idealizzata,'  'the  ideal  of  womanhood';  the 
'ewig-Weibliche,'  the  embodiment  (we  ought  hardly  to  say 
'incarnation')  of  female  perfection,  not  realized,  and  never  to 
be  realized,  on  this  earth." 

According  to  the  "Symbolists,"   Beatrice  is  merely  the 

[313] 


314      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

personification  of  some  abstract  quality,  or  entity,  such  as 
Wisdom,  Theology,  or  Imperial  Power.  A  symbol,  as  Moore 
uses  the  term,  "is  a  pure  invention  of  the  imagination — an 
arbitrarily  chosen  figure  or  type  under  which  something  else 
is  represented,  the  thing  so  represented  being  the  sole 
reahty."  According  to  this  definition,  then,  Beatrice  as 
symbolical  has  no  relation  whatever  to  womanhood,  whether 
historical  or  ideal.  Such  a  definition  of  symbolism  means 
nothing  more,  indeed,  than  mere  personification. 

With  none  of  the  theories  as  Moore  defines  them  can  I 
agree.  His  definition  of  symbolism,  adequately  as  it  may 
represent  the  ideas  of  the  commentators  who  maintain  that 
the  figure  of  Beatrice  is  a  mere  personification  of  some 
abstract  quality,  is  inadequate  to  the  true  nature  of  symbol- 
ism, especially  as  symbolism  was  understood  by  the  medieval 
mystics. 

According  to  Moore's  definition,  the  "sole  reality"  of  a 
symbol  is  the  thing  which  it  symbolizes.  For  the  mystical 
symbolist,  on  the  contrary,  the  symbol  as  well  as  the  thing 
symbolized  must  have  a  reality  of  its  own,  and  the  likeness 
which  he  discovers  in  the  symbol  and  the  thing  symbolized 
is  his  ground  for  asserting  their  essential  identity.  Definition  of 
symbolism  is  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  volume.  I  will 
confine  myself  at  present,  therefore,  to  a  mere  statement  of 
my  belief  that  there  are  certainly  symbolical  elements  in  the 
character  of  Beatrice:  but  that  these  symbolical  elements  do 
not  preclude,  as  Moore  states,  the  reality  of  Beatrice  as  a 
woman.  But  whether  or  not  that  woman  was  Beatrice  Por- 
tinari  is  another  question. 

The  theory  of  the  "  Idealists  "  that  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  is 
merely  the  expression  of  the  poet's  conception  of  perfect 
womanhood  in  the  abstract  is  inconsistent  with  the  character 
of  the  Divina  Commedia  as  an  allegory.  By  Dante's  own 
definition,  given  in  the  Convivio  and  the  letter  to  Can  Grande, 
the  Divina  Commedia^  as  allegory,  has  four  meanings,  literal^ 
allegorical^  moral^  and  anagogical  or  mystical\  and  by  the 
"anagogical  or  mystical  meaning"  Dante  signifies  the 
symbolical.  The  meaning  which   the  "Idealists"  attach  to 


BEATRICE  315 

Beatrice  as  simply  perfect  womanhood  corresponds  to  the 
moral  meaning,  and  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  central 
figure  of  the  allegory,  which  Dante  expressly  declares  has 
four  meanings,  should  have  only  the  moral  meaning.  The 
possibility  of  interpreting  the  character  according  to  its 
multiplicity  of  meanings  is  precluded  by  the  "Ideahsts," 
and  also,  indeed,  by  the  "Symbolists." 

BEATRICE  PORTINARI 

The  "ReaHst"  identification  of  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  with 
Beatrice  Portinari  has  nothing  in  its  favor  except  the  dubious 
testimony  of  Boccaccio,  given  almost  fifty  years  after  the 
death  of  Dante.  In  view  of  the  fabulating  character  of  his 
"Life"  of  Dante,  one  of  the  curiosities  of  the  history  of 
criticism  is  that  Boccaccio's  statement  about  Beatrice  Porti- 
nari as  the  original  of  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  has  been  accepted 
with  so  much  credulity.  Boccaccio's  statement  is  as  follows: 

"Perciocche  questa  e  la  primiera  volta  che  di 
questa  donna  nel  presente  libro  si  fa  menzione,  non 
pare  indegna  cosa  alquanto  manifestare,  di  cui 
i'autore  in  alcune  parti  della  presente  opera 
intenda,  nominando  lei  .  .  .  Fu  adunque  questa 
donna  (secondo  la  relazione  di  fededegna  persona, 
la  quale  la  conobbe,  e  fu  per  consanguinita.' 
strettissima  a  lei)  figliuola  di  un  valente  uomo 
chiamato  Folco  Portinari,  antico  cittadino  di 
Firenze:  e  comecche  I'autore  sempre  la  nomini 
Beatrice  dal  suo  primitivo,  ella  fu  chiamato  Bice: 
ed  egli  acconciamente  il  testimonia  nel  Paradise, 
laddove  dice:  'Ma  quella  riverenza,  che  s'indonna 
Di  tutto  me,  pur  per  b  e  per  ice.'  E  fu  di  costumi 
e  di  onesta  laudevole,  quanto  donna  esser  debba, 
e  possa;  e  di  bellezza  e  di  leggiadria  assai  ornata; 
e  fu  moglie  d'un  cavaliere  de'  Bardi,  chiamato 
messer  Simone,  e  nel  ventiquattresimo  anno  della 
sua  eta  passo  di  questa  vita,  negli  anni  di  Cristo 

MCCXC." 

In  regard  to  this  statement,  apparently  so  straightforward, 
I  ask  the  reader  to  notice,  first,  that  Boccaccio  provides  a 


3i6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

convenient  loop-hole  for  himself  in  basing  his  statement  on  the 
authority  of  an  anonymous  fededegn a  persona;  and,  second, 
that  immediately  after  making  the  identification,  he  refers  to 
the  strange  use  which  Dante  makes  in  Par.  vii.  14,  of  the  first 
and  last  letters  of  the  name  of  Beatrice:  be  .  .  .  ice. 

The  passage  to  which  Boccaccio  refers  is  Par.  vii.  10-15: 

lo  dubitava,  e  dicea:  'Dille,  dille,'  10 

Era  me,  'dille,'  diceva,  'alia  niia  donna 
Che  mi  disseta  con  le  dolci  stille'; 

Ma  quella  riverenza  che  s'  indonna  13 

Di  tutto  me,  pur  per  be  e  per  ice. 
Mi  richinava  come  1'  uom  ch'  assonna. 

Now  Dante's  use  here  of  the  letters  be  and  ice  is,  as  I  shall 
show  later,  cryptographic:  he  is  manifestly,  of  course,  as 
Boccaccio  suggests,  alluding  to  Bice  as  a  form  of  the  name 
Beatrice;  but  the  manifest  allusion  is  couched  in  such  a  way 
as  to  express  a  hidden  meaning  which  suggests  that  Beatrice 
is  someone  quite  different  from  Beatrice  Portinari.  It  is 
certainly  curious,  therefore,  that  Boccaccio,  after  identifying 
Beatrice  with  Beatrice  Portinari,  should  refer  to  what  is 
really  a  cryptographic  play  on  the  letters  of  her  name,  a  play 
which  contradicts  the  identification  (see  pp.  346-7).  Why,  if 
Boccaccio  wished  merely  to  say  that  Dante  used  the  form 
Bice,  did  he  refer  to  this  obscure  and  veiled  form  of  Bice, 
per  BE  e  per  ICE,  when  his  purpose  would  have  been  better 
served  by  referring  to  the  use  of  the  name  which  Dante  makes 
quite  simply  in  the  Vita  Nuova,  xxiv.  58: 

lo  vidi  monna  Vanna  e  monna  Bice? 

If  any  reason  can  be  found  for  believing  that  Boccaccio 
was  aware  of  the  cryptographic  character  of  the  Divina 
Cominedia,  his  reference  to  the  cryptographic  b  (be)  and  ice 
may  well  be  taken  to  indicate  that  he  was  intentionally 
contradicting  himself  in  his  identification  of  Beatrice  with 
Beatrice  Portinari. 

It  happens  that  there  is  evidence  that  the  cryptographic 
character  of  the  Divina  Commedia  was  not  unknown  to 
Boccaccio;  for  Boccaccio  wrote  a  poem,  obviously  influenced 


BEATRICE  317 

by  the  Divina  Commedia^  which  contains  acrostics.  The  poem 
to  which  I  refer  is  the  Amorosa  Visione.  Like  the  Divina 
Commedia,  the  Amorosa  Visione  is  a  vision  and  an  allegory. 
In  its  subject  matter,  moreover,  the  Amorosa  Visione^  like 
the  Divina  Commedia,  tells  how  the  poet,  guided  by  a  lady, 
sees  heroes  and  lovers  of  the  past.  The  Amorosa  Visione^ 
like  the  Divina  Commedia,  is  written  in  terza  rima^  and  the 
initial  letters  of  all  the  terzine  throughout  the  work  compose 
three  poems,  in  the  first  of  which  the  whole  is  dedicated  to 
Boccaccio's  lady-love,  under  her  name  Maria.  Following  is 
this  first  acrostic  sonnetto: 

Mirabil  cosa  forse  la  presente 

Vision  vi  parra,  donna  gentile, 

A  riguardar  si  per  lo  nuovo  stile 

Si  per  la  fantasia  ch'e  nella  mente. 
Rimirandovi  un  di  subitamente 

Bella,  leggiadra  et  in  abit  'umile, 

In  volonta  mi  venne  con  sottile 

Rima  trattar  parlando  brievemente. 
Adunque  a  voi,  cui  tengo  donna  mia 

Et  chui  senpre  disio  di  servire 

La  raccomando,  madame  Maria: 
E  prieghovi,  se  fosse  nel  mio  dire 

Difecto  alcun,  per  vostra  cortesia 

Correggiate  amendando  il  mio  fallire 
Cara  Fiamma,  per  cui'l  core  o  caldo 

Que'  che  vi  manda  questa  visione 

Giovanni  e  di  Boccaccio  da  Certaldo.* 

Observe  that  this  poem,  which  is  itself  an  acrostic,  contains 
another  acrostic,  for  the  initials  of  the  first,  third,  fifth, 
seventh,  and  ninth  lines  spell:  maria.  This  device,  elaborate 
but  obvious,  once  attention  is  directed  to  it,  seems  to  have 
escaped  notice  for  a  long  time,  for  according  to  the  Nuova 
Enciclopedia  Italiana^  Girolamo  Claricio  in  1521,  almost  two 
centuries  after  the  composition  of  the  poem,  was  the  first  to 

*Boccaccio.  Opere  Volgari.  Vol.  xiv,  Ed.  Ignazio  Moutier,  Firenze.  1833. 
It  is  amusing  to  note  that  this  editor  apologizes  for  the  "barbarous"  spelling 
in  the  acrostic  poems,  and  calls  attention  to  lines  that  are  too  long  or  too  short. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  in  working  out  this  long  trick  Boccaccio  sometimes  nodded; 
cryptographic  devices  are  subject  to  imperfections  and  irregularities. 


3i8      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

discover  that  U Amorosa  Visione  is  an  acrostic  poem. 
Boccaccio's  method  of  using,  for  his  acrostics,  the  initials  of 
the  first  Hnes  of  the  terzine,  is  analogous  to  Dante's  method, 
in  many  of  the  acrostics  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  of  using  the 
initials  of  the  first  lines  of  terzine. 

In  the  light  of  the  fact  that  in  the  Amorosa  Visione 
Boccaccio  imitated  the  Divina  Commedia  in  form  and  subject 
matter  and  embodied  in  his  poem,  moreover,  acrostics 
analogous  in  form  to  some  of  the  acrostics  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  it  can  hardly  be  rash  to  surmise  that  he  was  aware 
of  the  cryptographic  character  of  the  poem  which  he  imitated. 
And  if  Boccaccio  was  aware  of  the  cryptographic  character  of 
the  Divina  Commedia^  he  may  be  presumed  to  have  been 
aware  of  the  cryptographic  character  of  the  b  (be)  and  ice, 
to  which  he  refers  in  connection  with  his  identification  of 
Beatrice  with  Beatrice  Portinari.  The  cryptic  use  of  these 
letters  by  Dante  points,  as  Boccaccio  seems  thus  to  have 
been  aware,  to  the  fact  that  Beatrice  Portinari  was  not  the 
Beatrice  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 

It  is  my  belief,  accordingly,  that  Boccaccio  made  the 
identification  of  the  Beatrice  of  the  Divina  Commedia  with 
Beatrice  Portinari  as  a  blind;  and  that  in  making  the 
identification  which  he  knew  to  be  false,  he  gave  at  the  same 
time,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  should  be  capable  of  taking 
advantage  of  it,  the  clue,  in  the  allusion  to  the  cryptic  be  and 
ICE,  to  her  true  identity.  If  Boccaccio  did  indeed  perpetrate 
this  fraud,  it  may  be  considered  as  a  pious  fraud;  it  protected 
the  anonymity  of  Dante's  lady  in  the  same  spirit  that  Dante 
himself  had  protected  it.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Dante 
had  taken  elaborate  precautions,  to  which  he  confesses  in  the 
Vita  Nuova,  to  conceal  the  identity  of  the  lady  to  whom  his 
devotions  were  dedicated.  For  the  purpose  of  concealing  her 
identity  he  pretended  love  for  other  ladies,  whom  he  called 
the  schermi  of  his  true  love.  In  the  Vita  Nuova^  v.  23,  he 
speaks,  in  referring  to  a  lady  with  whom  he  thus  pretended, 
di  fare  di  questa  .  .  .  donna  schermo  della  veritade;  and 
again.  Vita  Nuova^  vi.  2,  he  says  that  questa  donna  era 
schermo  di  tanto  amore.  Concealment  of  the  identity  of  the 


BEATRICE  319 

lady  love  was  the  literary  convention;  it  was  of  the  essence, 
indeed,  of  the  esotericism  of  the  Platonic  or  chivalric  love  so 
widely  celebrated  in  the  poetry  contemporary  with  Dante, 
Boccaccio,  and  Petrarca.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  therefore, 
that  in  his  "pious  fraud,"  Boccaccio,  who  had  himself  con- 
cealed under  the  name  of  Fiammetta  his  devotions  to  Maria^ 
was  moved  by  loyalty  to  his  master  to  protect  from  the  eyes 
of  the  profane  the  secret  of  his  master's  love.  In  view  of  the 
fact  that  his  own  work  is  so  closely  related  to  that  of  Dante 
in  its  esoteric  and  cryptographic  character,  his  identification 
of  Beatrice  with  Beatrice  Portinari,  the  only  evidence  that 
exists  for  the  identification,  must  be  regarded  with  suspicion. 

But  whether  this  evidence  be  regarded  with  suspicion  or 
not,  there  is  an  objection  to  the  identification  of  the  Beatrice 
of  Dante  with  Beatrice  Portinari  which  remains  insur- 
mountable. Dante  would  not  have  called  by  her  real  name 
the  lady  whose  identity  he  took  such  pains  to  conceal.  I  have 
already  referred  to  the  elaborate  method  of  concealment 
which  Dante  confesses  that  he  practiced.  In  order  to  keep 
the  secret  of  the  identity  of  his  true  love,  he  pretended  love, 
as  he  tells  us  in  the  Vita  Nuova,  for  another  lady  whom  he 
calls  the  schermo  della  veritade.  The  schermo  della  veritade, 
I  believe,  has  a  double  meaning  into  the  discussion  of  which 
I  cannot  enter  now.  But  it  certainly  indicates,  in  its  literal 
meaning,  that  the  desire  to  conceal  the  identity  of  his  lady 
was  profound  on  the  part  of  Dante.  How,  then,  can  he  be 
considered  to  have  been  willing  to  refer  to  her  as  Beatrice  if 
Beatrice,  as  Boccaccio  says,  was  her  real  name  ?  For  Dante  to 
have  referred  to  Beatrice  Portinari  as  Beatrice — supposing 
for  the  moment  that  Beatrice  Portinari  was  really  the  lady — 
would  have  been  tantamount,  in  a  small  city  like  the  Florence 
of  Dante's  time,  to  telling  her  name  in  full.  In  view,  therefore, 
of  the  concealment  which  he  desired,  it  is  necessary  to 
conclude  that  the  real  name  of  his  lady  was  not  Beatrice,  and 
therefore  not  Beatrice  Portinari. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  criticism,  it  seems  to  me, 
that  surpasses  the  credulity  with  which  the  identification  of 
Beatrice  with  Beatrice  Portinari  has  been  accepted.  The 


320      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Fita  Niiova^  the  first  work  of  Dante's  in  which  he  speaks  of 
Beatrice,  must  have  had  for  its  readers  his  own  contempor- 
aries, his  fellow  citizens  and  friends,  the  very  eyes  from  which 
he  wished  his  secret  to  be  kept.  Yet  it  is  generally  supposed 
that  in  the  Fita  Nuova  Dante  betrays  his  secret  in  the  very 
breath  with  which  he  speaks  of  keeping  it!  It  cannot  even  be 
objected  that,  as  the  Vita  Nuova  was  written  after  the  death 
of  Beatrice,  the  necessity  for  concealing  her  identity  had 
ceased  to  exist  for  Dante.  In  the  first  place,  the  death  of  a 
mistress,  Platonic  or  non-Platonic,  can  hardly  have  appealed 
to  the  scruples  of  Dante  as  a  release  from  the  necessity  of 
protecting  her  name.  And  in  the  second  place,  it  would  appear 
from  the  Fita  Nuova  that  he  had  already  referred  to  her  as 
Beatrice  before  the  time  which  he  assigns  for  her  death.  I  am  not 
now  speaking  of  the  use  which  Dante  constantly  makes  of  the 
name  of  Beatrice  in  the  early  prose  parts  of  the  Fita  Nuova; 
for  the  prose  of  the  Fita  Nuova  was  certainly  written  after 
the  date  assigned  for  the  death  of  Beatrice.  I  am  speaking 
now  of  his  allusion  to  her  as  monna  Bice  in  the  fourteenth 
sonnet,  Fita  Nuova,  xxiv,  a  poem  which,  as  he  tells  in  the 
prose  comment,  was  written  immediately  after  the  meeting 
with  her  which  it  describes.  Since  it  thus  appears  from 
Dante's  evidence  that  he  had  used  this  name  before  the  date 
assigned  for  her  death,  it  can  hardly  be  argued  that  the 
obligation  to  conceal  her  true  name  had  been  removed  by  her 
death.  But  the  directest  evidence  that  Beatrice  was  not  the 
true  name  of  his  lady  is  given  by  Dante  himself  in  his  first 
reference  to  her,  Fita  Nuova,  ii.  6-7,  as  la  gloriosa  donna  della 
mia  mente,  la  quale  fu  chiamata  da  molti  Beatrice,  i  quali  non 
sapeano  che  si  chiamare.  With  whatever  shade  of  meaning 
these  words  may  be  interpreted — and  they  have  proved  a 
stumbling-block  to  many — their  unavoidable  implication  is 
that  the  true  name  of  the  lady  was  somehow  not  Beatrice. 

The  case  for  Beatrice  Portinari  is  so  weak  that  the  only 
relation  that  she  may  reasonably  be  supposed  to  have  had 
with  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  is  to  have  served  as  a  schermo 
della  veritade.  It  is  just  possible  that,  as  Beatrice  Portinari 
happened  to  have  the  same  name  that  Dante  had  chosen  for 


BEATRICE  321 

the  lady  of  the  Vita  Nuova  and  the  Divina  Commedia, 
Dante  may  have  permitted  it  to  be  beHeved  that  she  was 
indeed  the  object  of  his  devotions,  just  as  he  had  permitted 
the  same  false  belief  about  other  ladies.  It  is  in  the  sense, 
therefore,  of  creating  a  schermo  della  veritade  that  I  think 
Boccaccio  must  be  understood  in  his  identification  of 
Beatrice  with  Beatrice  Portinari. 

I  have  referred  above  to  the  literary  convention  which 
required  a  poet  to  write  of  his  lady  under  a  fictitious  name. 
This  widespread  convention,  which  indicates  that  Beatrice 
must  also  have  been  a  fictitious  name,  appears  in  the 
"Fiammetta"  of  Boccaccio,  To  the  possible  objection  to  this 
argument  that  the  convention  may  have  been  disregarded  by 
Dante  just  as  it  was  disregarded  by  Petrarca  in  the  poems 
which  he  addressed  to  the  historic  Laura,  I  reply  that  the 
historicity  of  Laura  as  Laura  has  yet  to  be  proved.  The  kind 
of  proof  that  is  commonly  produced  to  identify  the  Laura  of 
Petrarca  with  Laura,  the  daughter  of  Audibert  de  Noves  and 
the  wife  of  Hugh  de  Sade,  is  shown  in  Moore's  essay  on 
Beatrice,  when  he  says:  "And  as  to  Laura  such  scepticism  is 
simply  absurd,  since  her  existence  is  as  certain  as  anything  in 
history,  and  her  family  survives  near  Avignon  to  this  day." 
The  proof  of  the  actual  existence  of  Laura  de  Sade  has  noth- 
ing whatever  to  do  with  proving  that  she  was  the  original  of 
the  Laura  of  Petrarca.  I  might  as  well  say  that  I  know  that 
William  Shakespeare  wrote  the  Shakespeare  plays  because  I 
have  been  in  his  house  at  Stratford.  There  are,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  very  good  reasons  for  believing  that  the  Laura  of 
Petrarca  was  really  some  one  with  a  name  not  Laura.  I  cannot 
go  into  these  reasons  here.  Let  me,  however,  point  out  certain 
curious  parallels.  Dante  is  supposed  to  have  seen  Beatrice 
for  the  first  time  in  May,  and  the  third  meeting  with  her 
which  he  describes  was  apparently  in  a  church.  The  first 
meeting  of  Boccaccio  with  his  mistress,  Maria,  whom  he 
celebrated  as  Fiammetta,  was  on  Easter  Eve  in  a  church. 
The  first  meeting  of  Petrarca  with  Laura  was  in  Holy  Week 
in  a  church.  Li  view  of  the  fact  that  we  are  dealing  here  with 
three  great  poets,  almost  contemporaries,  who  followed  more 


322      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

or  less  the  same  literary  conventions,  the  coincidence  of  their 
first  meetings  with  their  mistresses  in  a  church  at  the  rebirth 
time  of  the  year  and  of  Christ  suggests  that  we  must  take  the 
accounts  of  these  meetings  and  the  identity  of  the  ladies 
thus  met  with  a  grain  of  allegory.  The  theme  of  rebirth,  thus 
suggested  by  the  three  Poets,  is  proved  to  be  consciously 
intended  by  Dante  in  the  very  title  of  the  Vita  Nuova. 

BELLA 

Grouped  with  the  "Realists  (properly  so  called)" — to 
continue  the  devout  terminology  of  Moore — there  are  those 
whom  he  designates  as  "spurious  Realists,"  or  " Separatists." 
These  heretics  among  the  Dantists,  while  admitting  that  the 
Beatrice  of  Dante  must  have  been  an  actual  contemporary  of 
Dante's,  reject  the  identification  of  her  with  Beatrice 
Portinari  and  declare  that  her  identity  can  never  be  known. 
1  share  the  belief  that  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  was  not  Beatrice 
Portinari;  but  I  am  far  from  believing  that  it  is  impossible  to 
know  who  she  was.  As  I  have  already  indicated,  I  identify 
the  Beatrice  of  Dante  with  Bella,  the  mother  of  Dante. 

My  identification  of  the  Beatrice  of  Dante  with  Bella,  the 
mother  of  Dante,  is  based,  first,  on  the  allegorical  meaning 
of  the  Vita  Nuova  and  the  Divina  Commedia,  and  second,  on 
cryptograms  which  I  have  deciphered  in  the  Divina  Corn- 
media.  In  order  to  present  this  cryptographic  evidence 
adequately,  I  shall  have  to  develop  briefly  the  interpretation 
of  the  character  to  which  the  cryptographic  evidence  points. 

Of  the  mother  of  Dante  little  is  known.  It  is  certain  that 
her  Christian  name  was  Bella,  and  it  has  been  conjectured 
that  she  was  the  daughter  of  Durante  di  Scolaio  degli  Abati. 
If  the  conjecture  is  true,  the  Christian  name  of  Dante,  as  a 
contraction  of  Durante,  was  possibly  derived  from  his 
maternal  grandfather. 

Bella  was  the  first  of  the  two  wives  of  Dante's  father, 
whose  name  is  usually  spelled  Alighiero.  She  gave  birth  to 
Dante  in  Florence,  and  Dante  was  her  only  child.  She  died 
in  or  before  1278. 


BEATRICE  323 

The  second  wife  of  Alighiero  was  Lapa,  the  daughter  of 
Chiarissimo  Cialuffi.  By  his  second  wife,  Lapa,  Ahghiero  had 
three  children.  The  names  of  both  Bella  and  Lapa  appear 
in  a  document  dated  May  16,  1332,  at  which  date  Lapa  was 
still  alive.* 

The  fact  that  the  mother  was  succeeded  by  a  stepmother 
in  the  life  of  Dante  was  a  profound  determinant,  I  believe,  for 
the  peculiar  development  of  his  imagination;  it  supplied,  by 
accident,  a  personal  experience  of  two  mothers  which  predis- 
posed him  to  the  myth  of  the  two  mothers,  or  the  dual 
mother,  that  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  symbolism  of 
the  Divina  Commedia. 

In  1278,  the  latest  date,  according  to  Toynbee,  that  can  be 
assigned  for  the  death  of  Bella,  Dante  was  thirteen  years  old. 
His  association  with  his  mother,  therefore,  can  scarcely,  at 
the  longest,  have  extended  beyond  his  childhood.  There 
is  very  good  evidence,  however,  that  his  mother  held  a  unique 
position  in  Dante's  affection.  This  evidence  consists  of  the 
fact  that  she  is  the  only  member  of  his  immediate  family  to 
whom  he  refers  in  the  course  of  his  entire  work.  The  very 
phrasing  of  his  reference  to  her  implies,  as  I  shall  show,  the 
peculiar  character  of  his  filial  love. 

Dante's  reference  to  his  mother  is  made  in  the  words 
addressed  to  him  by  Virgil,  InJ.  viii.  44-45: 

Alma  sdegnosa, 
Benedetta  colei  che  in  te  s'incinse. 

This  is  the  only  overt  reference  in  the  entire  works  of  Dante  to 
Dante's  mother;  and  outside  of  what  he  has  to  say  about  his 
ancestors,  it  is  the  only  reference  in  his  entire  works  to  any 
member  of  his  family.  The  remarkable  feature  of  this 
reference  to  Dante's  mother  is  that  it  is  a  paraphrase  of  the 
words  addressed  to  Christ,  Luke  xi.  27,  in  reference  to  Mary, 
the  mother  of  Christ: 

"And  it  came  to  pass,  as  he  spake  these  things,  a  certain 
woman  of  the  company  lifted  up  her  voice,  and  said  unto 

*My  authority  for  the  foregoing  statements  regarding  Bella  is  Paget 
Toynbee,  in  his  Dante  Alighieri. 


324      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

him,  Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare  thee,  and  the  paps  which 
thou  hast  sucked." 

Now  the  imphcation  of  the  words  which  Dante  puts  in  the 
mouth  of  Virgil  are  of  the  greatest  importance  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  In 
paraphrasing  in  his  address  to  Dante  the  Biblical  address  to 
Christ,  Virgil  is  implying  that  Dante  is  to  be  identified  with 
Christ  as  the  divine  son.  This  identification  of  Dante  with 
Christ  accords  with  the  numerous  examples  of  the  same 
identification  that  we  have  already  noticed.  And  in  para- 
phrasing, in  his  reference  to  the  mother  of  Dante,  the  Biblical 
reference  to  Mary,  the  mother  of  Christ,  Virgil  is  implying 
that  Bella,  the  mother  of  Dante,  is  to  be  identified  with 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Christ,  as  the  deified  or  divine  mother. 
Now  this  identification  of  Bella  with  Mary  as  the  divine 
mother  is,  as  we  shall  see,  constantly  paralleled  both  in  the 
Vita  Nuova  and  the  Divina  Com?nedia  by  the  intimate  asso- 
ciation which  Dante  describes  as  existing  between  Beatrice 
and  Mary. 

It  has  sometimes  been  doubted  whether  the  words  which 
Dante  here  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Virgil  are  actually  intended 
by  Dante  as  a  reference  to  his  own  mother.  The  proof  that  he 
so  intends  them  appears  in  the  interior  sequences  to  be 
found  in  the  passage  in  which  the  words  occur.  The  sequences 
appear  as  follows,  Inf.  viii.  42-48: 

42  dicendo  via  costa  con  gli  Altri   cani 

43  lo   cello  poi   con  Le  braccia  mi   cinse 

44  baciommi   iL  volto  e  disse  alma  sdegnosa 

45  BEnedettA  colei   che   in   te   s'incinse 

46  quel    fu  al  monDo  persona  orgogliosa 

47  bonta  non  e   che   sua  MEmoria   fregi 

48  cosi  s'e  I'ombra  sua  qui   fuRiosa 

Read  a  of  altri,  42;  l  of  le,  43;  l  of  //,  44;  be  of  benedetta, 

45:   BELLA. 

Read  a  oi benedetta,  45;  d  of  mondo,  46;  me  of  memoria,  47; 
R  o{furiosa,  48:  madre. 

Note  that  the  two  sequences  key  on  benedetta^  line  45. 


BEATRICE  325 

Associated  with  the  beloved  mother,  as  she  thus  unmis- 
takably appears  in  this  passage,  is  the  dream-like  distortion 
of  the  hated  father  in  the  figure  of  Filippo  Argenti,  whose 
jealous  act  in  laying  his  hands  on  the  boat,  a  mother  image,  in 
order  to  prevent  Dante's  passage,  the  symbol  of  incestuous 
union  with  the  mother  image,  is  so  cruelly  resented  by  Dante 
as  the  jealous  son. 

There  is  evidence  that  Dante  was  dominated  to  an  un- 
usual degree  by  his  love  for  his  mother.  I  am  referring  now 
to  a  peculiar  habit  of  thought  which  shows  in  all  his  work — 
a  habit  of  thought  which  led  him  to  form  his  abstract  con- 
ception of  life  in  terms  of  mother  imagery.  This  habit  is  the 
measure  of  the  emotion  with  which  the  memory  of  his  mother 
dominated  his  imagination.  Dante  conceived  as  mother 
images,  as  I  showed  in  the  preceding  chapter,  the  earth,  the 
encircHng  sea.  Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise;  he  recreated  the 
universe  in  the  image  of  the  mother  whom  he  had  lost  in  his 
youth  in  order  that  he  might  return  to  her  in  imagination.  And 
it  is  only  as  expressing  this  same  desire  to  return  to  his  mother 
that  he  can  be  completely  understood  when  he  enunciates  as 
the  universal  tendency  of  life:  //  sommo  desiderio  di  ciascuna 
cosa,  e  prima  della  Natura  dato,  e  lo  ritornare  al  suo  Principio. 

It  is  impossible  within  the  limits  of  the  present  volume  to 
trace  the  mother  imagery  in  the  works  of  Dante  as  it  spreads 
from  his  abstract  conception  of  the  universe  to  his  con- 
ceptions of  the  details  of  daily  Hfe.  But  there  is  not  a  page, 
I  venture  to  say,  in  the  whole  of  the  Divina  Commedia  where 
this  imagery  may  not  be  seen  by  those  who  have  eyes  to  see  it. 
I  will  confine  myself,  therefore,  to  citing  a  single  instance 
here.  Dante's  birthplace  was  Florence;  and  having  been 
exiled  from  Florence  under  penalty  of  death,  he  was  unable 
to  return  to  it.  But  the  desire  to  return  to  it  was  with  him 
constantly,  and  led  to  long  and  fruitless  attempts  on  his  part 
to  have  the  decree  of  exile  repealed.  Now  in  the  imagination 
of  Dante  Florence  and  the  image  of  his  mother  were  alike  in 
being  both  his  birthplace^  and  they  were  alike  in  being  both 
denied  to  him  under  penalty  of  death.  And  they  were  alike, 
accordingly,  in  being  both  suo  principio  to  which  he  desired. 


326      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

as  his  sommo  desiderio,  to  return.  In  his  love  of  Florence  and 
even  in  his  hatred  of  Florence,  as  the  source  of  his  misery, 
Dante  identified  the  city  with  his  mother,  and  it  is  only  in  the 
light  of  this  identification  that  his  allusions  to  the  city, 
expressed  as  they  constantly  are  in  terms  of  mother  imagery, 
can  be  properly  understood.  In  the  pathetic  allusion  to  his 
exile  in  the  beginning  of  the  Convivio  he  speaks  of  the 
dolcissimo  seno  of  the  bellissima  e  Jamosissima  figlia  di  Roma^ 
Fiorenza  .  .  .  nel  quale  nato  e  nudrito  Jul  fino  al  colmo 
della  mia  vita.  And  in  the  description  of  primitive  Florence, 
Par.  XV,  which  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  his  ancestor 
Cacciaguida,  he  contrasts  her  primitive  purity  with  her 
contemporary  licentiousness,  expressing  the  contrast  in 
unmistakable  references  to  the  sexual  life. 

We  have  already  seen  (pp.  92-4)  some  of  the  cryptograms 
in  this  passage,  in  which  Dante's  native  city  denies  him  and 
names  him.  That  it  was  his  conscious  intention  in  this 
description  of  Florence  to  identify  the  city  of  his  birth  with 
his  mother  is  proved  by  another  cryptogram  which  the 
passage  contains.  Following  are  the  lines  immediately 
succeeding  the  passage  containing  the  acrostic:  ella  non 

NOMA  DANTE : 

Bellincion  Berti  vid'  io  andar  cinto  112 

Di  cuoio  e  d'  osso,  e  venir  dallo  specchio 

La  donna  sua  senza  il  viso  dipinto; 
E  vidi  quel  de'  Nerli  e  quel  del  Vecchio  115 

Esser  contenti  alia  pelle  scoperta, 

E  le  sue  donne  al  fuso  ed  al  pennecchio. 
O  fortunate!  Ciascuna  era  certa  118 

Della  sua  sepoltura,  ed  ancor  nulla 

Era  per  Francia  nel  letto  deserta. 
L'  una  vegghiava  a  studio  della  culla,  121 

E  consolando  usava  V  idioma 

Che  prima  i  padri  e  le  madri  trastulla; 
L'  altra,  traendo  alia  rocca  la  chioma,  124 

Favoleggiava  con  la  sua  famiglia 

De'  Troiani,  di  Fiesole,  e  di  Roma. 
Saria  tenuta  allor  tal  maraviglia  127 

Una  Cianghella,  un  Lapo  Salterello, 

Qual  or  saria  Cincinnato  e  Corniglia. 


BEATRICE  327 

A  cosi  riposato,  a  cosi  bello  130 

Viver  di  cittadini,  a  cosi  fida 

Cittadinanza,  a  cosi  dolce  ostello, 
Maria  mi  die',  chiamata  in  alte  grida,  133 

E  neir  antico  vostro  Batisteo 

Insieme  fui  cristiano  e  Cacciaguida. 
Moronto  fu  mio  frate  ed  Eliseo;  136 

Mia  donna  venne  a  me  di  val  di  Pado, 

E  quindi  il  soprannome  tuo  si  feo. 

This  passage  consists  of  nine  terzine.  Nine  is  the  maternal 
number.  Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  nine  terzine: 


112 

BE 

115 

E 

118 

0 

121 

L 

124 

LA 

127 

SA 

130 

A 

133 

MARIA 

136 

MOR 

:  BELLA 

E  MARIA  AMOROSA 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
terzina: 

112  BEL 

113  DI 

114  LA 

Read:  di  bella 

This  passage  and  the  passage  preceding  it  (see  p.  92)  are 
an  elaborate  play  on  the  idea  of  mother  and  son.  Caccia- 
guida, the  root  {radice)  of  Dante,  is  speaking  in  praise  of 
good  old-fashioned  domestic  mothers  in  the  uncorrupted 
Florence  of  an  earlier  time.  Dante's  mother,  Bella,  appears 
twice  in  cryptograms,  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  line  133,  appears 
in  the  open  text.  Note,  lines  114  and  137,  la  donna  sua  and 
mia  donna. 


328      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Another  instance  of  Dante's  identification  of  Bella  with 
Florence  occurs  in  Par.  xxiii,  84-88,  in  which  Bella  is  also 
identified  with  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  interior  sequence  in 
this  passage  appears  as  follows: 

84  senza  veder  principio  dei    fuLgori 

85  o  benigna  virtu  che   si   gL'imprenti 

86  su   t'esaltasti  per  lArgirmi   loco 

87  agli   occhi   li   chE  non  eran  possenti 

88  il  nome  del  Bel   fior  ch'io  sempre   invoco 

Read:  l  o{ fulgore,  84;  l  of  gi',  85;  a  of  largirmi,  86;  e  of 
che,  87;  B  of  bel,  88:  bella. 

The  reading  terminates  on  bel.  II  nome  del  bel  is  a  hint  to 
look  for  a  name.  Bel  fior  is  the  mystic  rose,  the  Virgin.  And 
Hot  to  any  Florentine  suggests  his  mother  city. 

Another  instance  of  the  association  of  the  name  of  Bella 
with  the  Virgin  Mary  is  found  in  an  interior  sequence  in  the 
Hymn  to  the  Virgin,  Par.  xxxiii.  13-16: 

13  donna  sei  tanto  grande  e  tanto  vaLi 

14  che  qual  vuol  grazia  ed  A  te  non  ricorre 

15  sua  disianza  vuoL  volar  senz'  ali 

16  la  tua  BEnignita  non  pur  soccorre 

Read  l  of  vali.,  13;  a,  14;  l  of  vuol.   15;  be  of  benignita,  16: 

BELLA. 

THE  MOTHER  CULT 

The  emotional  disposition  of  Dante  to  recreate,  out  of  the 
miscellaneous  materials  of  his  personal  experience  the 
mother  whom  he  had  lost  in  his  childhood  in  order  that  he 
might  return  to  her  in  imagination  is  further  to  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  he  allied  himself  with  the  various  con- 
temporary forms  of  thought  which  expressed  the  mother  cult. 

In  many  primitive  religions  there  appears  the  vast  and 
vague  figure  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods.*  This  figure  must  be 

*Sce  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  the  article  on  "The 
Mother  of  the  Gods." 


BEATRICE  329 

understood,  in  the  last  analysis,  as  expressing  for  the  people 
who  believed  in  the  divine  mother  the  need  of  including  in 
their  religious  conceptions  of  the  universe  a  counterpart  of 
the  human  mother.  The  Mother  of  the  Gods  was  identified  by 
Homer  with  Rhea,  the  wife  of  Kronos,  and  she  was  supposed 
to  have  prevented  Kronos  from  swallowing  their  son  Zeus  by 
concealing  Zeus  and  by  giving  Kronos  to  devour  in  place 
of  her  son  a  large  stone  wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes.  The 
story  was  localized  in  Crete,  which  thus  became  the  birth- 
place of  Zeus.  The  significance  which  Dante  attaches  to  this 
myth  appears  from  his  curious  elaboration  of  the  myth  in 
Inf.  xiv. 

Rhea  appears  in  the  four  terzine.  Inf.  xiv.  94-105: 

'In  mezzo  mar  siede  un  paese  guasto,'  94 

Diss'  egli  allora,  'che  s'  appella  Creta, 

Sotto  il  cui  rege  fu  gia  il  mondo  casto. 
Una  montagna  v'  e,  che  gia  fu  lieta  97 

D'  acqua  e  di  fronde,  che  si  chiamo  Ida; 

Ora  e  diserta  come  cosa  vieta. 
Rea  la  scelse  gia  per  cuna  fida  100 

Del  suo  figliuolo;  e  per  celarlo  meglio, 

Quando  piangea  vi  facea  far  le  grida. 
Dentro  dal  monte  sta  dritto  un  gran  veglio,      103 

Che  tien  volte  le  spalle  inver  Damiata, 

E  Roma  guarda  si  come  suo  speglio. 

Consider  first  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
lines  of  these  terzine: 

94       IN  100       R 

97       u  103       D 

Read:  nudri 

In  connection  with  the  idea  of  nourishment  consider  also 
the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  same  lines: 


94          IN    M 

100 

REA 

97          UNA 

103 

D 

Read: 

IN    UNA    MADRE 

330      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

There  is  a  hint  of  a  hidden  meaning  in  celar,  line  loi. 
Speg/io,  line  105,  like  specchio  in  other  passages  in  the  Divina 
Commedia,  is  a  mother  image.  Cf.  the  tre  specchi  in  Par.  ii. 
loi  (see  p.  216).  The  mirror  which  reproduces  the  image  of 
the  father  is  obviously  the  mother.  Here  the  mirror  is  Rome, 
the  mother  city.  The  sea  and  the  mountain  are  mother 
symbols.  The  old  man  who  stands  erect  in  the  mountain  is 
phallic. 

The  conception  of  the  divine  mother,  which  is  an  essential 
feature  of  many  primitive  religions  and  which  is  to  be 
understood  as  a  sort  of  universalization  of  the  human  mother, 
is  apparently  absent  from  the  orthodox  forms  of  Christianity. 
The  conception  survives,  indeed,  in  the  expression  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed  that  Christ  "was  conceived  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  But  the  implication  of  this  phrase  as  to  the  mother- 
hood of  God  is  seldom  recognized,  and  the  three  Persons  of 
the  Trinity  are  generally  considered  as  male,  a  divine  father- 
hood with  which  a  divine  motherhood  is  not  consciously 
associated. 

But  in  the  Christian  picture  of  the  eternal,  or  universal, 
life  as  the  complete  fulfillment  of  the  life  of  man,  the  absence 
of  anything  adequately  corresponding  to  the  profound  and 
enduring  relation  of  child  to  mother  was  felt  from  the  begin- 
ning as  an  imperfection — an  imperfection  in  the  picture  itself 
which  could  not  possibly  be  conceived  as  existing  in  the 
divine  reality.  So  great  is  the  need  of  a  child  for  its  mother 
that  the  "children  of  God"  were  unable  to  believe  without 
reservation  in  a  picture  of  the  perfect  life  in  which  the  mother 
was  missing. 

From  the  very  beginning,  therefore,  of  the  Christian  era, 
there  appeared  the  tendency  to  put  back  into  the  picture, 
either  in  the  form  of  legend  or  of  heretical  doctrine,  the  figure 
of  the  divine  mother  that  had  been  already  more  or  less 
eliminated  from  the  orthodox  form  of  faith. 

It  is  possible  to  assign  to  two  causes  the  elimination  of  the 
divine  mother  from  the  orthodox  form  of  Christianity.  The 
first  was  the  early  Christian  ideal  of  asceticism,  according  to 
which  the  sexual  life,  even  under  the  sanction  of  marriage, 


BEATRICE  331 

was  regarded  as  reprehensible.  Recognition  of  the  "Mother- 
hood of  God"  would  have  entailed  a  recognition  of  sex  as  an 
element  of  the  divine  life  that  was  at  utter  variance  with  the 
ascetic  ideal  of  early  Christianity.  It  is  a  fact,  moreover,  that 
the  cult  of  the  divine  mother  in  pagan  religions  had  been 
accompanied  almost  invariably  by  ceremonies  of  an  ex- 
tremely licentious  character.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that 
the  Christian  Fathers  should  look  askance  at  a  cult,  in  what- 
ever Christian  rehabilitation,  which  had  proved  in  practice 
to  lead  to  sexual  irregularities  in  the  conduct  of  the 
worshippers. 

The  second  cause  to  which  may  be  assigned  the  elimination 
of  the  concept  of  the  divine  mother  from  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity was  the  rationalistic  tendency,  due  to  the  influence 
of  Greek  thought,  to  define  the  nature  of  God  in  terms  not 
merely  anthropomorphic.  The  "accident"  of  sex  could 
accordingly  find  no  place  in  the  definition  of  the  Christian 
Trinity  as  "substance."  This  rationalistic  tendency  in  the 
definition  of  the  Trinity  is  "reconciled"  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  with  the  concept  of  the  Trinity  as  a  family  Triad; 
the  reconciliation  appears  in  the  opening  lines  of  hiferno  iii, 
where  the  three  persons  of  the  Trinity  are  associated  respec- 
tively with  the  three  categories  of  the  mind,  will,  intellect, 
and  emotion. 

But  neither  the  asceticism  nor  the  rationalism  of  early 
Christianity  could  suppress  the  popular  demand  for  a  form 
of  faith  in  which  the  divine  mother,  as  a  counterpart  of  the 
human  mother,  was  assigned  an  adequate  role.  This  popular 
demand  was  met  in  two  ways:  first,  by  the  identification  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  the  divine  mother,  and  second,  by  the 
virtual  deification  of  Mary,  the  human  mother  of  Christ,  as 
QtoTOKos,  the  mother  of  God. 

The  cult  of  the  mother  in  the  early  history  of  Christianity 
was  developed  in  an  extremely  explicit  form  in  Gnosticism, 
"the  manifold  systems  of  belief,"  according  to  the  article  on 
Gnosticism  in  Hastings'  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics y 
"prevalent  in  the  first  two  centuries  of  our  era,  which 
combined  the  Christian  teachings  with  a  gnosis,  or  higher 


332      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

knowledge."  The  gnosis  j  or  "higher  knowledge,"  to  which  the 
Gnostics  laid  claim  was,  according  to  Theodotus,  "the 
knowledge  of  who  we  were,  what  we  have  become,  where  we 
were,  into  what  place  we  have  been  thrown;  whither  we  are 
hastening,  whence  we  are  redeemed;  what  is  birth,  what  is 
rebirth." 

Fundamental  in  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  Gnostic  sects  is  the 
conception  of  the  Godhead  as  a  family  Triad,  consisting  of 
the  supreme  unknown  Father,  whose  essence  is  light,  and, 
associated  with  him,  the  Mother  and  the  Son.  This  divine 
mother  is  explicitly  identified  by  the  Gnostics  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  of  the  orthodox  Christian  Trinity. 

The  Gnostic  elements  in  the  Divina  Commedia  are 
numerous  and  precise;  they  have  never,  however,  been 
sufficiently  recognized.  I  shall  have  occasion,  later  in  the 
chapter,  to  show  in  what  way  Beatrice  resembles  the 
Gnostic  figure  of  the  divine  and  fallen  mother.  But  in  the 
meantime  I  can  cite  as  Gnostic  certain  elements  in  the 
Divina  Commedia  which  are  independent  of  the  mother 
symbolism  of  Beatrice,  but  which  indicate  the  mother  sym- 
bolism of  the  poem  as  a  whole. 

Common  to  Gnosticism  and  the  Divina  Commedia  is  the 
idea  of  rebirth.  The  Gnostic  belief  in  the  ascent  of  the  soul 
through  successive  stages  of  being  is  analogous  to  Dante's 
ascent  through  the  four  stages  of  Earth,  Hell,  Purgatory,  and 
Paradise.  This  ascent  is  analogous  to  the  "Wheel  of  Birth," 
a  concept  related  to  the  Pythagorean  concept  of  the  trans- 
migration of  the  soul.  From  the  "Wheel  of  Birth"  the  soul 
can  escape  only  in  union  with  God,  a  union  which  Dante 
conceives  himself  as  accomplishing  at  the  end  of  his  poem. 

One  of  the  numerous  expressions  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
of  the  idea  of  rebirth  is  to  be  found  in  the  phrase  seconda 
morte,  a  phrase  that  has  given  much  trouble  to  the  com- 
mentators. This  phrase  appears  twice.  The  first  appearance 
is  in  hif.  i.  115-117: 

Ove  udirai  le  disperate  strida 
Di  quegli  antichi  spiriti  dolenti, 
Che  la  seconda  morte  ciascun  grida: 


BEATRICE  333 

The  spirits  are  "crying  out  for"  the  second  death  as  some- 
thing to  be  desired,  so  that  Norton's  "proclaim"  for  grida 
misses  the  sense.  Death  and  birth,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
are  ambivalent  terms.  The  death  of  a  spirit  in  Hell  means  its 
birth  in  another  region. 

The  same  implication  of  rebirth  in  seconda  morte  is  evident 
in  the  second  appearance  of  the  words  in  Par.  xx.  115-117: 

E  credendo  s'  accese  in  tanto  foco 
Di  vero  amor,  ch'  alia  morte  seconda 
Fu  degna  di  venire  a  questo  gioco. 

The  "fire  of  love"  is  like  the  fire  of  Hell,  through  which  the 
soul  passes  to  be  reborn. 

Another  idea  common  to  Gnosticism  and  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  the  use  of  light  as  the  symbol  of  the  divine 
principle  of  good,  and  of  darkness  as  the  symbol  of  the 
principle  of  evil. 

There  is  a  Gnostic  belief  that  the  heavens  were  formed  out 
of  the  body  of  the  male-female  Sophia  or  Prunicos.  This 
belief  is  obviously  analogous  to  Dante's  idea  of  Heaven,  as 
well  as  of  Hell  and  Purgatory,  as  having  the  form  of  the 
female  body. 

According  to  another  Gnostic  belief,  there  proceed  from 
the  Father,  or  Supreme  God,  a  number  of  beings  in  a  descend- 
ing scale  of  dignity;  these  divine  creatures  in  their  totality 
make  up  the  Pleroma,  the  fulness  of  all  blessedness  and 
perfection.  Distinguishable  as  they  are  from  each  other,  they 
are  manifestations  of  the  one  God,  who  is  himself  impersonal 
and  unknowable.  This  belief  has  its  analogies  in  the  Angelic 
Orders  of  the  Divina  Commedia  and  in  the  orderly  arrange- 
ment, according  to  their  degrees  of  merit,  of  the  souls  who 
meet  Dante  in  his  ascent  through  the  heavenly  spheres. 

The  use  of  cabala,  mystical  letters,  and  numbers  for 
cryptic  meanings  was  prevalent  among  the  Gnostics.  The 
cryptographic  character  of  the  Divina  Commedia  cannot, 
therefore,  be  considered  as  unrelated  to  the  cryptography  of 
the  Gnostics,  numerous  examples  of  which  may  be  found  in 
The  Gnostics  and  Their  Remains^  by  C.  W.  King.  Especially 


334      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

prevalent  among  the  Gnostics  was  the  custom  of  calculating, 
by  various  methods,  the  numerical  value  of  proper  names 
and  then  expressing  these  names  by  other  names  or  phrases 
which  have  the  same  numerical  value.  The  Gnostics  had  also 
the  custom  of  renaming  their  neophytes,  the  new  names 
being  chosen  for  the  appropriate  or  fortunate  numerical  value 
which  they  were  supposed  to  possess.  The  theory  which 
underlay  this  use  for  the  same  person  or  thing  of  different 
names  having  the  same  numerical  value  was,  according  to 
The  Gnostics  and  Their  Remains,  that  "things  equal  to  the 
same  thing  were  equal  to  each  other."  Of  Dante's  use  of  the 
enigmatic  cinquecento  diece  e  cinque.  King  says:  "That  genu- 
ine Gnostic  Dante  employs  with  great  effect  this  numerical 
expression  of  a  Name." 

These  few  of  the  manifold  analogies  between  Gnosticism 
and  the  Divina  Commedia,  however  much  or  little  they  prove 
in  themselves  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia, 
prove  that  the  Divina  Commedia  is  intimately  related  to  the 
Gnostic  forms  of  thought  in  which  the  cult  of  the  mother  is  an 
essential  feature. 

The  cult  of  the  mother  is  implicit  in  the  Gnostic  doctrine 
of  the  motherhood  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  the  form  in  which 
the  cult  attained  its  widest  expression  was  in  the  exaltation  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  as  combining  the  perfections  of  the  human 
as  well  as  of  the  divine  mother.  The  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
developed  to  extremes  which  earned  the  name  of  Mariolatry. 
Traces  of  the  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary  are  certainly  to  be 
recognized  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 

Many  of  the  Gnostic  ideas,  meeting  as  they  did  the 
hostility  of  the  orthodox  church  of  Rome,  survived  in  more  or 
less  modified  form  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  certain  heretical 
sects  and  in  the  writings  of  the  Catholic  mystics.  I  need  not 
here  discuss  the  mystical  elements  of  the  Divina  Commedia; 
for  our  present  purposes  they  may  be  taken  for  granted.  But 
what  I  wish  to  emphasize  is  the  fact  that  in  medieval 
mysticism  the  cult  of  the  mother  is  likewise  highly  developed. 
Indicative  of  the  mystical  cult  of  the  mother  are  many 
expressions  in  the  writings  of  the  great  mystic  St.  Bernard, 


BEATRICE  335 

the  St.  Bernard  who  leads  Dante  to  the  Virgin  Mary  in  the 
conckision  of  Paradiso. 

In  his  Gnosticism,  in  his  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  in 
his  mysticism,  Dante  is  related  to  the  principal  forms  of 
religious  thought  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  which  the  cult  of  the 
mother  is  expressed.  And  in  all  these  forms  of  the  cult  of 
the  mother  there  is  an  element  which,  for  lack  of  a  better 
term,  must  be  called  incestuous.  I  have  frequently  already 
been  obliged  to  refer  to  the  suggestion  of  incest  in  primitive 
myth  and  medieval  symbolism.  Let  it  suffice,  therefore,  in 
regard  to  Gnosticism,  to  the  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  to 
medieval  mysticism,  to  say  that  the  incestuous  element  in 
these  forms  of  thought  arises  necessarily  from  the  idea, 
expressed  almost  universally  in  terms  of  the  sexual  life,  of  the 
union  of  man,  conceived  as  a  son,  with  God  conceived  as  a 
mother. 

There  remains  to  be  briefly  considered  a  form  of  the  cult  of 
the  mother  which  was  social  rather  than  religious.  I  am 
referring  now  to  the  remarkable  convention  prevailing  in  the 
Middle  Ages  that  was  known  as  chivalric  love.  This  con- 
vention, which  sought  to  reproduce  in  society  an  equivalent 
of  the  religious  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  must,  I  believe,  be 
understood  in  the  last  analysis  as  a  simulation  between  lover 
and  mistress  of  the  relations  between  the  human  son  and  the 
divine  mother.  These  relations,  necessarily,  are  the  same,  in 
ideal  form,  as  the  relations  between  the  son  and  his  human 
mother.  That  the  relationship  between  lover  and  mistress  in 
chivalric  love  was  indeed  a  simulation  of  the  ideal  relation- 
ship between  son  and  mother  is  proved  by  the  rules  of  the  so- 
called  Courts  of  Love,  by  which  the  relationship  was  defined. 
According  to  these  rules  a  man  must  love,  not  his  wife,  but  a 
lady  married  to  some  one  else;  and  his  love  must  be  chaste. 
The  lover,  moreover,  as  it  would  seem,  must  stand  in  a  feudal 
relation  to  the  lady's  husband,  as  subject  to  ruler,  or  as  son 
to  father. 

Now  the  foregoing  conditions  imposed  by  the  Courts  of 
Love  are  exactly  calculated  to  simulate  the  relations  of  son 
and  mother.  The  lady  of  the  lover  must  be  married,  like  his 


336      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

mother;  and  the  lover  must  be  subject  to  the  lady's  husband, 
just  as  he  is  subject  to  his  own  father.  And  his  love  for  his 
lady  must  be  chaste,  just  as  his  love  for  his  mother  must  be 
chaste,  although  the  ideal  of  chastity  was  not  always 
attained.  The  convention  of  chivalric  love  was,  first,  a 
recognition  of  the  existence  of  a  sexual  character  in  the  love 
of  the  son  for  his  mother;  and,  second,  a  belief  that  the  love 
of  the  son  for  his  mother  is  the  ideal  form  of  love.  The  ideal 
of  chivalric  love  was  expressed,  par  excellence^  by  Dante  and 
his  contemporaries. 

BEATRICE  AND  BELLA 

In  view  of  the  manifold  aspects  of  the  cult  of  the  mother 
which  may  thus  be  shown  to  exist  in  the  work  of  Dante  let 
us  now  examine  the  evidence  for  identifying  Beatrice,  the 
central  female  figure  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  with  Bella, 
the  mother  of  Dante. 

There  is  no  lack  of  expressions  in  the  Divina  Commedia 
which  indicate,  in  quite  literal  terms,  the  maternal  character 
of  Beatrice,  In  her  very  first  appearance  to  Dante  in  the 
Terrestrial  Paradise  Dante  says  of  her,  Purg.  xxx.  79-80: 

Cosi  la  madre  al  figlio  par  superba, 
Com'ella  parve  a  me. 

And  in  Par.  i.  101-102,  Dante  speaks  of  her  as  looking  at  him 

con  quel  sembiante 
Che  madre  fa  sopra  figliuol  deliro. 

And  again  in  Par.  xxii.  4-7,  Dante  says  that  Beatrice  spoke 

to  him 

come  madre,  che  soccorre 
Subito  al  figliuol  pallido  ed  anelo 
Con  la  sua  voce,  che  11  suol  ben  disporre. 

In  addition  to  these  direct  allusions  in  the  Divina  Com- 
media to  the  maternal  character  of  Beatrice,  there  is  con- 
stantly developed,  in  the  presence  of  Beatrice  as  if  by  asso- 
ciation of  thought,  a  flood  of  maternal  imagery.  To  refer 


BEATRICE  337 

again  to  her  first  appearance  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise, 
Dante  says,  Piirg.  xxx.  43-45,  that  when  he  saw  her, 

Volsimi  alia  sinistra  col  rispitto 

Col  quale  il  fantolin  corre  alia  mamma, 

Quando  ha  paura  o  quando  egli  e  afflitto. 

And  making  straightway  an  allusion  to  Virgil  as  his 
dokissimo  patre,  he  alludes,  line  52,  to  V  antic  a  matre.  I  leave 
to  the  reader,  however,  the  further  working  out  of  the 
maternal  associations  which  suggest  themselves  to  the  mind 
of  Dante  in  the  presence  of  Beatrice,  with  the  assurance  that 
they  are  numerous;  and  confine  myself  at  present  to  showing 
an  acrostic  by  which  the  maternal  character  of  Beatrice,  as  I 
think,  is  definitely  proved.  The  very  first  words  which 
Beatrice  addresses  to  Dante  begin  Purg.  xxx.  73.  The  four 
terzine,  73-84,  which  follow  this  line  and  which  give  the 
words  of  Beatrice  and  their  remarkable  ejffect  on  Dante  read 
as  follows: 

'Guardaci  ben:  ben  sem,  ben  sem  Beatrice: 

Come  degnasti  d'  accedere  al  monte? 

Non  sapei  tu  che  qui  e  1'  uom  felice'? 
Gli  occhi  mi  cadder  giu  nel  chiaro  fonte;  76 

Ma  veggendomi  in  esso,  i  trassi  all'  erba, 

Tanta  vergogna  mi  gravo  la  fronte. 
Cosi  la  madre  al  figlio  par  superba,  79 

Com'  ella  parve  e  me;  per  che  d'  amaro 

Sente  il  sapor  della  pietate  acerba. 
Ella  si  tacque,  e  gli  Angeli  cantaro  82 

Di  subito:  In  te,  Domine,  speravi; 

Ma  oltre  pedes  meos  non  passaro. 

On  the  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine  of  this  passage  consider 
the  following  marginal  letters: 

73  GUA 

76  GLI 

79  COSI    LA    MADRE    A 

82  E 

Read:  eguaglia  cosi  la  madre 

The  interior  sequences  in  the  same  passage  appear  as  follows : 


338      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

73  guardaci  ben  ben  sem  Ben  sem  BEatrice 

74  come  degnasti   d'accedere  AL  monte 

75  non  sapei   tu  che  qui   e  L'uom   fELice 

Read  b  of  the  third  ben^'jy,  al,  74;  el  of/^//V^,  75:  bella. 
Read  be  oi  Beatrice^  73;  al,  74;  l  before  uom^  75:  bella. 
Note  that  the  two  readings  form  a  cross. 

The  maternal  character  of  Beatrice  is  indicated  in  the  Vita 
Nnova  and  the  Divina  Commedia  by  the  intimate  association 
which  Dante  is  constantly  declaring  to  exist  between  Beatrice 
and  the  Virgin  Mary.  Dante  recalls  how  she  sat  ove  s'udiano 
parole  della  Regina  dell  a  gloria^  Vita  Nuova^  v.  2-3;  and  at  her 
death  he  says  that  lo  S  ignore  della  giustizia  chiamb  quest  a 
gentilissima  a  gloriare  sotto  Vinsegna  di  quella  reina  benedetta 
Maria,  lo  cui  nome  ju  in  grandissima  reverenza  nelle  parole  di 
questa  Beatrice  be  at  a. — Vita  Nuova,  xxix.  In  Inf.  ii  she  is 
mentioned  as  one  of  a  trinity  of  blessed  ladies  of  whom  the 
other  two  are  Lucia  and  the  Virgin  Mary;  she  comes  to  the 
rescue  of  Dante  at  the  bidding  of  the  Virgin  Mary;  and  her 
place  in  the  mystic  rose  in  the  Empyrean  Heaven  is  very 
near  the  place  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

The  character  of  Beatrice,  as  developed  throughout  the 
Vita  Nuova,  is  Virgin-like,  divine:  "she  seemed  not  the 
daughter  of  mortal  man  but  of  God."  In  more  than  the  sense 
common  to  a  lover's  adoration,  she  is  miraculous:  miracolo  la 
cui  radice  e  solamente  la  mirabile  Trinitade. — Vita  Nuova,  xxx 
39-41.  From  her  proceed  powerful  and  excellent  influences 
upon  all  who  behold  her;  she  is,  indeed,  the  exemplar  of 
womanhood.  The  words  that  describe  her  in  Vita  Nuova,  xxvi, 
coronata  e  vestita  d'umilta,  and,  in  the  sonnet,  Benignamente 
d'umilta  vestuta,  are  like  the  words  in  the  prayer  to  the  Virgin, 
Par.  xxxiii.  2: 

Umile  ed  alta  piii  che  creatura. 

In  Purg.  xxxiii.  4-6,  Beatrice  is  explicitly  associated  with 
Maria: 

E  Beatrice  sospirosa  e  pia 

Quelle  ascoltava  si  fatta,  che  poco 

Piu  alia  croce  si  cambio  Maria. 


BEATRICE  339 

And  in  lines  10-12  the  divinity  of  Beatrice  is  clearly  implied, 
for  she  repeats  as  applying  to  herself  the  words  of  Christ 
to  his  disciples,  words  which  would  be  inappropriate  on  the 
lips  of  any  woman  but  the  divine  mother: 

Modicum,  et  non  videbitis  me, 

Et  iterum     . 

Modicum,  et  vos  videbitis  me. 

This  association  of  Beatrice  with  Mary  is  in  effect  an 
identification  of  the  two,  as  the  human  mother  deified  and 
the  divine  mother.  It  is  analogous  to  the  identification  which 
Dante  makes  of  himself  with  Christ.  The  identity  of  Beatrice 
and  Mary  is  borne  out  by  several  cryptograms. 

Following  are  the  last  ten  lines  of  Par.  i,  a  significant 
position: 

(E  si  come  veder  si  puo  cadere  133 

Foco  di  nube)  se  1'  impeto  primo 

L'  atterra,  torto  da  falso  piacere. 
Non  dei  piu  ammirar,  se  bene  estimo,  136 

Lo  tuo  salir,  se  non  come  d'  un  rivo 

Se  d'  alto  monte  scende  giuso  ad  imo. 
Maraviglia  sarebbe  in  te,  se  privo  139 

D'  impedimento  giu  ti  fossi  assiso, 

Come  a  terra  quiete  in  foco  vivo.' 
Quinci  rivolse  inver  lo  cielo  il  viso.  142 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  last  line  of 
the  canto  and  on  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine: 


133 

E 

136 

NO 

139 

M 

142 

QUI 

Read:  nome  qui 

This  acrostic  seems  to  be  part  of  a  longer  acrostic  to  be 
read  on  lines  121-142: 

La  provvidenza  che  cotanto  assetta,  121 

Del  suo  lume  fa  il  ciel  sempre  quieto, 
Nel  qual  si  volge  quel  ch'  ha  maggior  fretta: 


340      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Ed  ora  li,  com'  a  si  to  decreto,  124 

Cen  porta  la  virtu  di  quella  corda, 

Che  cid  che  scocca  drizza  in  segno  lieto. 
Ver'  d  che,  come  forma  non  s'  accorda  127 

Molte  fiate  alia  intenzion  dell'  arte, 

Perch'  a  risponder  la  materia  c  sorda, 
Cosi  da  questo  corso  si  diparte  130 

Talor  la  creatura,  ch'  ha  potere 

Di  piegar,  cosi  pinta,  in  altra  parte, 
(E  si  come  veder  si  pud  cadere  133 

Foco  di  nube)  se  I'impeto  primo 

L'  atterra,  torto  da  falso  piacere. 
Non  dei  piu  ammirar,  se  bene  estimo,  136 

Lo  tuo  salir,  se  non  come  d'  un  rivo 

Se  d'  alto  monte  scende  giuso  ad  imo. 
Maraviglia  sarebbe  in  te,  se  privo  139 

D'  impedimento  giu  ti  fossi  assiso. 

Come  a  terra  quiete  in  foco  vivo.' 
Quinci  rivolse  inver  lo  cielo  il  viso.  142 

Consider  on  the  last  line  of  the  canto  and  the  first  lines  of 
the  seven  preceding  terzine  the  follovi'ing  marginal  letters: 


121 

LA 

124 

E 

127 

V 

130 

COSI 

133 

E 

136 

NO 

139 

M 

142 

QUI 

Read:  cosi  vela  nome  qui 

If  the  name  is  veiled  here,  it  may  be  in  maraviglia,  line 
139,  which  is  an  anagram  for  vagli  maria.  These  words  may- 
be understood  to  mean  that  Beatrice,  who  is  speaking  in  the 
text,  is  the  equivalent  of  Mary. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  immediately  under  Maraviglia,  on 
the  last  three  lines  of  the  passage,  there  are  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


BEATRICE  341 


140 

DI 

141 

CO 

142 

QUI 

DICO 

QUI 

Read: 

In  the  passage  containing  the  acrostic  nome  qui  are  several 
interior  sequences,  as  follows: 

133  e  si   come  vedEr  si  puo  cadere 

134  foco  di   nube   se  L'impeto  prime 

135  I'atterra   torto  da   fALso  piacere 

136  non  dei  piu  ammlrar  se  Bene   estimo 

137  Id   tuo   saliR  se  non  come  d'un   rivo 

138  se  d'Alto  monte  scende  giuso  ad  imo 

139  Maraviglia  sarebbe   in   te   se  privo 

140  d' impEDimento   giu   ti   fosse  assise 

141  come  a  terRA  quiete   in   foco  vivo 

Read  the  second  e  of  veder,  ^22\  ^  before  impeto,  134;  al  of 
falsOy  135;  B  oi  bene,  136:  bella. 

Read  a  oijalso,  135;  i  o{ ammirar,  136;  r  oi salir,  137;  a  of 
alto,  138;  M  of  maraviglia,  139:  maria. 

Note  that  these  two  sequences  key  on  the  word/also,  135. 

Read  m  of  maraviglia,  139;  ed  of  impedimenta,  140;  ra  of 
terra,  141 :  madre. 

Note  that  the  second  and  third  sequences  key  on  the 
initial  oi  Maraviglia,  139; 

There  is  another  interior  sequence  which  involves  the  word 
maraviglia.  It  appears  in  Purg.  xxviii.  39-43  (see  p.  367). 

The  maternal  character  of  Beatrice  is  indicated  by  the 
constant  association  of  her  with  the  number  nine,  the  nine 
being,  in  effect,  the  nine  months  of  pregnancy.  According  to 
the  Vita  Nuova,  a  nine  is  connected  with  all  the  principal 
events  of  her  life,  and  in  Vita  Nuova,  xxx,  Dante  tells  why  the 
number  nine  was  so  "friendly"  to  her.  The  chief  reason, 
according  to  Dante,  seems  to  be  this:  Nine  is  a  miracle, 
because  it  represents  the  multiplication  of  three,  the  number 
of  the  Trinity,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  by  itself.  This 
is  surely,  in  the  language  of  such  a  symbolist  as  Dante,  to  be 
taken  as  a  reference  to  the  way  in  which  the  Trinity  begot 


THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

and  conceived,  or,  in  other  words,  multiplied  itself  into^  the 
divine  man-child  Christ.  Thus  nine,  as  representing  the 
multiphcation  of  Trinity  by  itself,  represents  the  miracle  by 
which  Christ,  according  to  the  Apostles'  Creed,  was  con- 
ceived of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  The 
nine,  therefore,  which  is  so  friendly  to  Beatrice,  identifies  her 
as  a  symbol  of  motherhood,  and  further  identifies  her  with 
the  divine  mother,  as  symbolized  both  by  Mary  and  by  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

A  curious  confirmation  of  this  identification,  by  means  of 
the  number  nine,  of  Beatrice  with  Mary  is  to  be  found  in  a 
passage  in  the  Vita  Nuova  which  has  always  given  trouble  to 
the  commentators.  In  order  to  show  the  constant  association 
of  nine  with  Beatrice  Dante  wishes  to  show  in  the  date 
assigned  for  her  death  a  nine  in  the  day,  the  month,  and  the 
year.  According  to  the  Christian  calendar,  Fusanza  nostra^ 
the  nine  appears  in  the  year,  which  was  1290,  but  not  in  the 
day  and  the  month,  the  8th  of  June;  and  Dante  is  therefore 
obliged,  in  order  to  get  a  day  and  a  month  with  a  nine  in 
them,  to  do  what  various  commentators  have  considered  as 
juggling  with  other  calendars.  What  he  does  is  to  take 
recourse  to  the  calendar  of  Syria,  in  which  June,  the  month 
assigned  for  the  death  of  Beatrice,  is  the  ninth  month;  and 
to  the  calendar  of  Arabia,  according  to  which  the  eighth  of 
June,  the  day  assigned  for  the  death  of  Beatrice,  is  the 
ninth.  For  the  discussion  of  these  calendars  the  reader  may 
refer  to  Moore's  essay  on  "Beatrice," 

Now  this  "juggling,"  as  it  is  generally  considered  to  be, 
is  juggling,  indeed,  but  juggling  with  a  purpose  quite  different 
from  the  purpose  usually  assigned.  Dante  is  not  to  be  con- 
sidered here  as  "juggling"  with  the  calendars  of  Syria  and 
Arabia  in  order  to  escape  from  the  difficulty  of  finding  nines 
where  they  do  not  exist.  He  is  using  these  calendars  to 
indicate  that  the  date  of  the  death  of  Beatrice  must  be 
reckoned  according  to  the  calendars  that  would  have  been 
used  for  the  dates  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  for  the  reason  that 
Beatrice  is  to  be  identified  with  the  Virgin  Mary  as  the 
divine  mother. 


BEATRICE  343 

The  association  of  nine  with  Beatrice  was  so  intimate, 
according  to  the  Vita  Nuova^  that  questa  donna  fu  accom- 
pagnata  dal  ?Jumero  del  nove  a  dare  ad  intendere^  che  ella  era 
un  nove^  cioe  un  miracolo^  la  cui  radice  e  solamente  la  mirabile 
Trinitade. — Vita  Nuova^  xxx.  That  Beatrice  was  a  nine  in  fact 
may  be  shown  by  a  method  of  computing  the  numerical  value 
of  her  name.  One  method  of  computing  the  numerical  value  of 
a  name  is  to  add  together  the  numerical  values  of  all  the 
letters  of  the  name,  and  if  the  sum  is  more  than  one  integer, 
to  add  together  in  turn  the  integers  of  the  sum  so  that  the 
final  sum  appears  as  a  single  integer.  This  integer  gives  the 
numerical  value  of  the  name  from  which  it  is  obtained. 
The  numerical  value  of  a  letter  corresponds  to  the  number 
of  its  position  in  the  alphabet.  According  to  the  Latin 
alphabet  as  including  the  letter  k,  the  numerical  values  of  the 
letters  of  Beatrice  are  as  follows: 

B  2 

E         5 

A  I 

T  20 

R  l8 

I  9 

c  3 

E  5 

The  sum  of  these  numbers  is  63 ;  and  the  sum  of  the  integers 
of  63 — which,  as  I  said,  must  be  added  together — is  9,  the 
numerical  value  of  Beatrice. 

The  fact  that  the  name  of  Beatrice  may  be  calculated  to 
express  the  number  nine,  the  very  number  which  Dante  asso- 
ciates with  her  as  her  symbol,  is  a  coincidence  that  would 
have  appealed  to  the  kind  of  Gnostic  interest  that  produced 
in  the  Divina  Commedia  the  enigma  of  the  dxv.  I  am  of  the 
opinion,  therefore,  that  along  with  the  meaning  of  the  name 
Beatrice,  as  "She  who  blesses,"  the  numerical  value  of  the 
name  as  nine  was  a  determinant  for  Dante  to  use  the  name  for 
the  central  female  character  of  his  poem. 

In   connection   with   the   numerical   value   of  the   name 


344      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Beatrice,  which  gives,  first,  a  63  and,  second,  a  9,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  the  number  of  times  the  name  of  Beatrice 
is  mentioned  in  the  Divina  Commedia  is  exactly  63;  so  that 
the  numerical  value  of  the  name,  if  computed  from  the 
number  of  times  it  is  mentioned,  may  again  be  expressed  as  9. 
This  coincidence  is,  in  my  opinion,  not  an  accident;  and  1  feel 
confirmed  in  my  opinion  by  the  fact  that  there  seems  to  be 
something  equally  cryptic  suggested  in  the  number  of  times 
the  name  of  Christ  is  mentioned  in  the  Divina  Commedia^ 
namely,  39,  a  number  which  reduces  by  the  addition  of  its 
integers  first  to  12  and  then  to  3,  the  number  of  the  Trinity. 
And  in  view  of  the  fact  that,  as  I  have  tried  to  show,  Dante 
identifies  himself  with  Christ  in  the  Divina  Commedia  and 
that  the  name  of  Dante,  di  necessita^  is  mentioned  in  the 
Divina  Commedia  once,  the  number  of  times  that  Christ  is 
mentioned  may  be  considered  to  be  40.  The  number  40 
reduces  to  4,  and  4  is  the  number  par  excellence  for  Christ, 
since  he  makes,  by  his  divine  Incarnation,  a  four  of  the 
Trinity.  Four  as  the  number  of  the  perfect  man  dates  at 
least  from  the  sacred  tetrad  of  Pythagoras,  a  conception 
that  finds  its  echo  in  Dante's  expression:  Ben  tetragono^ 
Par.  xvii.  24. 

The  63  which  appears  in  the  process  of  computing  the 
numerical  value  of  Beatrice  and  also  in  the  number  of  times 
the  name  is  mentioned  in  the  Divina  Commedia  has  also  a 
significant  appearance  in  the  life  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 
According  to  medieval  belief  the  age  of  Mary  at  the  time  of 
her  death  was  63.*  Since  there  is  no  historical  foundation  for 
assigning  this  age  to  Mary,  I  suggest  that  it  was  assigned  to 
her  by  the  early  symbolists  for  the  simple  reason  that,  like 
the  name  of  Beatrice,  it  can  be  reduced  to  the  number  9,  which 
expresses  the  function  of  motherhood.  If  this  suggestion  is 
reasonable,  it  suggests  in  turn  that  Beatrice  and  the  divine 
mother,  like  Dante  and  the  divine  son,  are  to  be  identified. 

*Begley  quotes  several  cabalistic  soliloquies  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  made  by 
Josephus  Mazza,  a  monk  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Each  of  the  soliloquies 
contains  63  cabalas,  "that  being  her  supposed  age  when  she  died." — Biblia 
CabalisHca  or  the  Cabalistic  Bible.  Rev.  VValter  Begley,  London,  1903. 


BEATRICE  345 

This  same  association  of  the  "  beloved"  as  mother  with  the 
number  nine  appears  in  acrostics  in  Purg.  ix.  64-81: 

A  guisa  d'  uom  che  in  dubbio  si  raccerta,          64 

E  che  muta  in  conforto  sua  paura, 

Poi  che  la  verita  gli  e  discoperta. 
Mi  cambia'  io:  e  come  senza  cura  67 

Videmi  il  Duca  mio,  su  per  lo  balzo 

Si  mosse,  ed  io  diretro  inver  1'  altura. 
Lettor,  tu  vedi  ben  com'  io  innalzo  70 

La  mia  materia,  e  pero  con  piu  arte 

Non  ti  maravigliar  s'  io  la  rincalzo. 
Noi  ci  appressammo,  ed  eravamo  in  parte,       73 

Che  la,  dove  pareami  prima  un  rotto 

Pur  come  un  fesso  che  muro  diparte, 
Vidi  una  porta,  e  tre  gradi  di  sotto,  76 

Per  gire  ad  essa,  di  color  diversi, 

Ed  un  portier  che  ancor  non  facea  motto. 
E  come  l'  occhio  piu  e  piu  v'  apersi,  79 

Vidil  seder  sopra  il  grado  soprano, 

Tal  nella  faccia,  ch'  io  non  lo  sofFersi: 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  first  three  terzine  the 
following  marginal  letters: 

64       A 

67         MICA 
70         L 

Read:  l'amica 

Lines  70-73  are  a  hint  to  look  for  concealed  meaning. 
Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  last  three  terzine  the 
following  marginal  letters: 

73       NO 
76        V 
79       E 
Read:  nove 

Note  that  the  number  of  the  canto  in  which  this  acrostic 
NOVE  appears  is  nine,  and  that  in  this  canto  nine  is  developed 
the  mother  symbolism  of  Lucia  and  also  the  symbohsm  of 
the  porta,  line  76,  as  the  entrance  to  the  uterine  region, 
Purgatory  proper. 


346      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

In  Pa7\  iv.  1 1 8,  Dante  addresses  Beatrice  in  the  following 
words : 

O  amanza  del  prlmo  amante,  o  diva. 

In  thus  implying  that  Beatrice  as  the  daughter  of  God  is  also 
the  amanza  of  God,  Dante  must  be  considered  as  again 
identifying  her  with  the  divine  mother  Mary,  who  is  referred 
to,  Pu7'g.  XX.  97-98,  as  queWunica  sposa  dello  Spirito  Santo. 
This  reference  to  the  Spirito  Santo^  by  the  way,  need  not  be 
taken  as  disproving  the  mother  symbolism  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
supported  as  this  symbolism  consistently  is  throughout  the 
Divina  Commedia.  The  mother  symbolism  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  here  disguised,  as  it  is  disguised  in  all  orthodox  definitions 
of  the  character  of  the  third  person  of  the  Trinity.  In  the 
foregoing  quotation,  indeed,  the  association  of  the  Spirito 
Santo  with  Mary  as  wife  is  rather  to  be  understood  as  a 
veiled  identification  of  the  two. 

Now  the  character  of  Beatrice  as  the  amanza  of  God  and 
so  as  the  mother  of  the  divine  son  is  indicated  by  Dante  in 
several  cryptographic  allusions  to  her,  in  which  the  divine  son 
is  indicated  as  in  her  womb.  Let  me  show  first  that  this 
meaning  is  contained  in  the  cryptic  allusion  which  Dante 
makes  to  Beatrice:  per  BE  e  per  ICE,  Par.  vii.  14. 

This  allusion  to  Beatrice  by  the  first  and  last  letters  of  her 
name  is,  according  to  Boccaccio,  an  indication  that  she  was 
sometimes  called  Bice,  the  contracted  form  of  Beatrice. 
And  in  the  Vita  Nuova  it  appears  that  Dante  did  indeed  call 
her  Bice.  In  the  sonnet  in  Fita  A^^^(9^;^,^xxiv,[Dante  says: 

lo  vidi  monna  Vanna  e  monna  Bice. 

Now  in  connection  with  this  use  of  Bice  Dante  makes  a 
remarkable  statement  both  in  the  sonnet  and  in  the  prose 
discussion  of  the  meeting  with  Beatrice  which  the  sonnet 
records.  In  referring,  in  the  sonnet,  to  the  two  ladies,  monna 
Vanna  and  monna  Bice  respectively,  Dante  says: 

Amor  mi  disse:  Questa  e  Primavera, 
E  quella  ha  nome  Amor,  si  mi  somiglla. 

And  in  the  prose  comment  he  explains  how  Love  said  to  him 


BEATRICE  347 

in  his  heart  that  quella  Beatrice  chiamerebbe  Amore^  per 
molt  a  somiglianza  che  ha  meco. 

What,  then,  is  the  resemblance  which  Beatrice  has  with 
Love  ? 

I  suggest  that  the  answer  to  this  question  is  to  be  found 
in  the  letters  of  the  name  Beatrice  which  are  omitted  in 
the  form  bice.  These  letters  are  eatr. 

The  cryptographic  significance  of  these  letters,  as  showing 
the  resemblance  of  Beatrice  to  Love,  is  to  be  discovered 
in  the  fact  that,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  letter  t  is  the 
symbol  of  the  cross  and  so  of  Christ,  or  the  divine  man.  A  form 
for  the  Italian  word  for  man  is  ow,  so  that  the  t  of  eatr 
may  be  considered  as  representing,  in  the  divine  form,  cm. 
Replace  the  t,  therefore,  by  its  equivalent  cm,  in  the  letters 
eatr;  and  eatr  become  eaomr,  or  amore.  It  appears,  then, 
that  BEATRICE  resembles  love  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that 
AMORE  is  actually  spelt,  by  a  cryptographic  device,  in 
BEATRICE.     Beatrice     thus     equals     bice  +  amore,     or 

B  — AMORE  — ICE. 

The  same  substitution  of  cm  for  t  is  to  be  made  in  the 
omitted  letters  in  the  allusion  to  Beatrice  as  be  and  ice. 
The  letters  of  Beatrice  intervening  between  be  and  ice  are 
ATR.  Substitute  om  for  the  t,  and  the  letters  are  aomr,  or 
AMOR,  the  Latin  form  of  amore.  Amor,  or  the  divine  child, 
is  thus  inside  Beatrice,  as  in  her  womb.  This  same  idea  of 
Love,  as  the  divine  child,  in  the  womb  of  his  mother,  has 
already  been  noted  in  the  words  of  the  prayer  to  the  Virgin 
in  the  opening  lines  of  Par.  xxxiii.  In  this  passage,  moreover, 
Dante  shows  by  a  cryptographic  device  that  it  is  himself 
who  is  in  the  womb  of  the  mother,  and  thus,  by  the  corres- 
pondence between  the  meaning  of  the  cryptogram  and  the 
manifest  meaning  of  the  text,  identifies  himself  with  the 
divine  child  and  his  mother  with  the  divine  mother.  The 
passage,  Par.  xxxiii.  1-15,  reads  as  follows: 

'Vergine  Madre,  figlia  del  tuo  Figlio, 
Umile  ed  alta  piu  che  creatura, 
Termine  fisso  d'  eterno  consiglio, 


348      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Tu  se'  colei  che  1'  umana  natura  4 

Nobilitasti  si,  che  il  suo  Fattore 

Non  disdegno  di  farsi  sua  fattura. 
Nel  ventre  tuo  si  raccese  1'  amore,  7 

Per  lo  cui  caldo  nell'  eterna  pace 

Cosi  e  germinato  questo  fiore. 
Qui  sei  a  noi  meridiana  face  lO 

Di  caritate,  e  giuso  intra  i  mortali 

Sei  di  speranza  fontana  vivace. 
Donna,  sei  tanto  grande  e  tanto  vali,  13 

Che  qual  vuol  grazia  ed  a  te  non  ricorre, 

Sua  disianza  vuol  volar  senz'  ali. 

Consider  first  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
lines  of  the  first  three  terzine: 

I  VER 

4       T 

7  NE 

Read:  ventre 

This  recalls  the  phrase  nel  ventre  tuo^  line  7.  For  the  interior 
sequence  in  this  passage  see  p.  328. 

Now  note  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines 
of  the  five  terzine,  five  being  the  number  of  letters  in  Dante's 
name: 

IV  E 

4  T 

7  N 

10         QUI    SEI         A 
13  D 

Read:  quivi  sei,  dante 

The  letter  v,  line  i,  has  the  spelled  form  vi,  and  in  this 
form  it  is  here  considered.  The  n,  t,  and  e  of  dante  are 
the  same  letters  used  in  reading  the  acrostic  ventre,  so  that 
Dante,  as  here  written,  is  in  the  ventre. 

Dante  was  not  unaware,  I  surmise,  that  he  could  also  be 
shown  to  be  nel  ventre  by  another  cryptographic  device, 
since  Dante's  initials  reversed,  a.  d.,  are  contained  in  the 
word  madrey  line  i. 


BEATRICE  349 

The  acrostic:  sei  quivi,  dante,  is  immediately  followed 
by  a  passage  of  five  terzine  which  contains  an  acrostic.  The 
passage,  Par.  xxxiii.  16-30,  reads: 

La  tua  benignita  non  pur  soccorre  16 

A  chi  domanda,  ma  molte  fiate 

Liberamente  al  domandar  precorre. 
In  te  misericordia,  in  te  pietate,  19 

In  te  magnificenza,  in  te  s'  aduna 

Quantunque  in  creatura  e  di  bontate. 
Or  questi,  che  dall'  infima  lacuna  22 

Deir  universe  infin  qui  ha  vedute 

Le  vite  spiritali  ad  una  ad  una, 
Supplica  a  te  per  grazia  di  virtute  25 

Tanto  che  possa  con  gli  occhi  levarsi 

Piu  alto  verso  1'  ultima  salute. 
Ed  io,  che  mai  per  mio  veder  non  arsi       28 

Piu  ch'  io  fo  per  lo  suo,  tutt'i  miei  preghi 

Ti  porgo,  e  prego  che  non  sieno  scarsi,  ■ 

Consider  the  initials  of  the  first  lines  of  these  five  terzine: 


16 

L 

19 

I 

22 

0 

25 

s 

28 

E 

Read: 

:    ELIOS 

ELios  is,  as  we  have  already  seen,  a  designation  of  God 
which  identifies  God  with  the  sun.  The  symbolism  of  Christ 
in  the  womb  of  the  divine  mother  corresponds,  in  sun  sym- 
bolism, to  the  sun  at  night  in  the  womb  of  the  earth.  That 
the  ELios  here,  as  the  sun  god,  is  to  be  understood  as  in  this 
nocturnal  phase  is  expressed  by  the  acrostic  on  the  five  ter- 
zine immediately  following: 

Perche  tu  ogni  nube  gli  disleghi  31 

Di  sua  mortalita  coi  preghi  tuoi, 

Si  che  il  sommo  piacer  gli  si  dispieghi. 
Ancor  ti  prego,  Regina  che  puoi  34 

Cid  che  tu  vuoli,  che  conservi  sani, 

Dopo  tanto  veder,  gli  affetti  suoi. 


350      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

Vinca  tua  guardia  i  movimenti  umani:       37 

Vedi  Beatrice  con  quanti  Beati 

Per  li  miei  preghi  ti  chiudon  le  mani.' 
Gli  occhi  da  Dio  diletti  e  venerati,  40 

Fissi  neir  orator,  ne  dimostraro 

Quanto  i  devoti  preghi  le  son  grati. 
Indi  air  eterno  lume  si  drizzaro,  43 

Nel  qual  non  si  de'  creder  che  s'  inii 

Per  creatura  1'  occhio  tanto  chiaro. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines 
of  these  terzine: 


31 

PER 

34 

A 

37 

VI 

40 

GLI 

43 

I 

Read:  pervigilia 

The  vigil  is  for  the  rising  of  the  sun  that  is  enclosed  in  the 
womb  of  the  night;  it  corresponds  to  the  vigil  for  the  re- 
surrection of  Christ,  and,  in  the  allegory  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  to  the  mystic  rebirth  of  Dante,  who  has  been 
symbolized,  in  the  acrostic  on  the  opening  lines  of  the  canto, 
as  in  the  womb  of  the  divine  mother. 

The  three  consecutive  acrostics:  sei  quivi,  dante;  elios; 
and  PERVIGILIA,  appear,  it  is  to  be  noted,  on  frames  of  five 
terzine.  Their  identity  of  structure  and  their  consonance  of 
meaning  go  far  to  proving  their  intentional  character. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  cryptograms  which  indicate 
Dante  as  in  the  womb,  let  us  return  now  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  cryptographic  device:  be  .  .  .  ice,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  thrice  repeated  word:  dille.  The  passage  in 
which  the  device  appears  reads  as  follows,  Par.  vii.  10-15: 

lo  dubitava,  e  dicea:  'Dille,  dille,'  10 

Fra  me,  'dille,'  diceva,  'alia  mia  donna 

Che  mi  disseta  con  le  dolci  stille'; 
Ma  quella  riverenza  che  s'indonna  13 

Di  tutto  me,  pur  per  be  e  per  ice. 

Mi  richinava  come  I'uom  ch'assonna. 


BEATRICE  351 

The  play  on  the  double  meanings  of  the  words  in  this 
passage  is  extraordinary.  I  wish  to  call  attention  particularly 
to  the  use  of  the  word  indonna^  line  13;  the  punning  idea  of 
this  word  as  "in  lady"  suggests  the  meaning  of  the  crypto- 
gram showing  AMOR  in  Beatrice.  Notice,  also,  the  thrice 
repeated  Dille^  lines  10  and  11.  The  literal  meaning  of  'Dille 
is,  of  course:  "Tell  her."  But  the  letters  dil,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  are  one  of  the  cryptographic  guises  for  the  name 
of  Dante;  so  that  dille,  dille,  dille  may  be  taken  to  mean: 
"To  her,  Dante;  to  her,  Dante;  to  her,  Dante."  There  is 
certainly  in  this  cryptic  iteration  the  suggestion  of  the  act 
by  means  of  which  the  child  enters  its  mother's  womb. 

In  the  Christian  symbolism  of  the  Middle  Ages  Love 
signifies  sometimes,  as  in  the  passage  just  quoted  from  the 
prayer  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  divine  son;  and  sometimes,  as 
in  the  inscription  over  the  gate  of  Hell,  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
resemblance  of  Beatrice  to  Love,  which  Dante  speaks  of  in 
the  Vita  Nuova^  indicates,  therefore,  that  she  resembles  Love 
in  the  sense  that  she  reproduces  Love,  as  the  divine  child,  in 
her  womb;  and  also  that  she  is  to  be  identified  with  Love  as 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  divine  mother  in  the  Trinity. 

It  is  now  possible  to  understand  why  Dante  uses  the  word 
pur^  or  "merely,"  in  speaking  of 

quella  riverenza  che  s'indonna 
Di  tutto  me,  pur  per  be  e  per  ice. 

In  the  form  of  her  name  as  be  and  ice  Beatrice  is  repre- 
sented as  being  as  yet  without  the  divine  child  in  her  womb. 
Per  BE  e  per  ICE,  therefore,  she  is  represented  as  still 
virginal,  and  accordingly  as  commanding  less  reverence  than 
in  the  full  form  of  the  name,  Beatrice,  which  represents  her 
as  having  the  divine  child  in  her  womb  and  therefore  as  being 
now  the  divine  mother. 

This  interpretation  of  Bice  as  the  virginal  and  Beatrice  as 
the  maternal  form  of  the  name  is  supported  by  the  use  which 
Dante  makes  of  the  two  forms  in  the  Vita  Nuova.  The  only 
allusion  to  Beatrice  by  name  in  the  verse  of  the  Vita  Nuova 
that  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  written  before  the  time 


352      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

assigned  for  her  death  is  in  the  Bice  to  which  we  have  been 
referring,  Vita  Nuova^  xxiv.  After  her  death  she  is  consist- 
ently called  Beatrice. 

The  maternal  character  of  Beatrice  is  expressed  sym- 
bolically by  her  death  and  consequent  ascent  to  Heaven; 
her  death  symbolizes  the  act  by  which  Dante  is  reunited 
with  her,  as  in  incest,  and  her  ascent  to  Heaven  symbolizes 
the  act  by  which  Dante  is  reborn,  or  borne  to  God.  The  form 
Beatrice  is  therefore  applied  to  her  after  her  death  as  to 
the  mother,  whereas  the  form  Bice  is  applied  to  her  before 
her  death  as  to  the  virgin  who  has  not  yet  received  the  son 
into  her  womb. 

That  the  ascent  of  Beatrice  to  Paradise  is  the  means  by 
which  Dante  is  reborn  has  already  been  suggested.  In  Dante's 
sleep  with  Beatrice  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  is  symbolized 
the  sexual  union  by  which  Dante,  as  the  son,  begets  himself 
anew  in  his  own  mother  in  order  to  be  reborn.  By  this  act  he 
is  to  be  understood  as  entering  her  womb,  and  it  is  in 
her  womb  that  Beatrice  carries  Dante  in  their  ascent  to 
Paradise.  Paradise  and  the  womb  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  one 
and  the  same.  There  is  nothing  unusual  in  this  phantasy  of 
returning  to  the  womb  of  the  mother  as  to  the  ideal  state  of 
existence;  it  is  common  in  myth,  religion,  and  dream.  For 
the  symbolism  of  Dante's  sleep  with  Beatrice,  see  pp.  380-7. 

That  Dante  is  indeed  to  be  considered  as  in  the  womb  of 
Beatrice  in  his  ascent  to  Paradise  is  frequently  implied  by 
double  entente.  A  striking  instance  of  such  a  double  meaning 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  words  of  Beatrice  to  Dante,  Par.  i.  88-89: 

Tu  stesso  ti  fai  grosso 
Col  falso  immaginar. 

These  words  occur  just  a  few  lines  before  Beatrice,  as  I  have 
already  pointed  out,  is  likened  to  a  mother  turning  toward 
her  delirious  child  Dante.  The  v^ox^  grosso  has,  of  course  two 
meanings  in  Italian;  it  means,  first,  "dull"  or  "stupid;" 
and,  second,  it  means  "  pregnant."  The  double  meaning  of  the 
whole  passage  may  be  developed,  therefore,  as  follows: 
Beatrice  and  Dante  are  ascending  together  to  Paradise,  and 


BEATRICE  353 

Dante,  who  imagines  that  he  is  still  on  earth,  is  confused  by 
the  novel  experiences  which  the  ascent  produces.  When 
Beatrice,  therefore,  says  in  effect  to  Dante  that  in  his  false 
conjecture  he  is  making  himself  pregnant,  she  is  virtually 
implying  that  what  he  is  really  doing  is  making  her  pregnant. 
The  passage.  Par.  i.  88-90,  which  contains  the  phrase  just 
quoted,  is  as  follows: 

E  comincio:  Tu  stesso  ti  fai  grosso 
Col  falso  immaginar,  si  che  non  vedi 
Cio  che  vedresti,  se  l'  avessi  scosso. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  three  lines: 

88  E 

89  CO 

90  c 

Read:  ecco 

The  intention  of  this  acrostic  may  be  to  call  attention  to 
the  double  meaning  in  the  words:  tu  stesso  ti  fai  grosso. 

A  similar  suggestion  of  Dante's  union  with  Beatrice  will 
appear,  I  believe,  in  the  first  seventy  lines  o(  Par.  xviii,  if  the 
reader  is  alert  to  the  possible  double  meanings.  In  this 
passage  Cacciaguida,  as  the  ancestor  of  Dante,  is  obviously  a 
father  image,  and  when  it  is  said  of  him  that 

Gia  si  godeva  solo  del  suo  verbo 
Quello  specchio  beato, 

the  word  verl^o,  as  a  word  used  like  Logos  for  Christ,  may  well 
be  understood  to  refer  not  merely  to  what  Cacciaguida  has 
been  saying,  but  also  to  his  Christ-like  son.  The  specchio 
beato^  as  in  the  three  mirrors  in  Par.  ii,  is  a  father  image, 
which  reinforces  the  father  imagery  of  Cacciaguida  himself. 
In  the  Hght  of  this  symbolism  of  father  and  son,  it  is  not 
unnatural  to  think  of  Beatrice  as  completing  the  family 
trinity,  and  as  with  child,  in  view  of  the  possible  double 
meaning  of  her  words: 

io  sono 
Presso  a  colui  ch'ogni  torto  disgrava. 

Disgrava,  as  disburdens,  has  a  possible  reference  to  delivery 


354      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

in  childbirth.  The  idea  seems  to  be  adumbrated  again  in  the 
words,  Hnes  65-66: 

bianca  donna,  quando  11  volto 
Suo  si  discarchi  di  vergogna  il  carco. 

The  importance  of  the  passage  as  containing  a  double 
meaning  seems  to  be  suggested  by  the  cryptograms  which  it 
contains.  The  first  four  terzine  of  the  canto  are: 

Gia  si  godeva  solo  del  suo  verbo 

Quello  specchio  beato,  ed  io  gustava 
Lo  mio,  temprando  col  dolce  1'  acerbo; 

E  quella  Donna  ch'  a  Dio  mi  menava,  4 

Disse:  'Muta  pensier,  pensa  ch'  io  sono 
Presso  a  colui  ch'  ogni  torto  disgrava.' 

Io  mi  rivolsi  all'  amoroso  suono  7 

Del  mio  conforto,  e  quale  io  allor  vidi 
Negli  occhi  santi  amor,  qui  l'  abbandono; 

Non  perch'  io  pur  del  mio  parlar  diffidi,  10 

Ma  per  la  mente  che  non  puo  reddire 
Sopra  se  tanto,  s'  altri  non  la  guidi. 

Consider  first  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
lines  of  these  four  terzine: 

I  G 

4       E 
7       10 

10         N 

Read:  genio 

Genio  suggests  ingegno,  a  word  which  Dante  often  uses  as  a 
hint  of  the  presence  of  a  cryptogram. 

In  the  same  passage  appears  the  following  interior 
sequence: 

2  quello  specchio  bEato  ed  io  gustava 

3  lo  mio  tempranDo  col  dolce  1' acerbo 

4  e  quella  doNna  ch'a  dio  mi  menava 

5  disse  muTA  pensier  pensa  ch'io  sono 

Read  e  of  i^eato,  2;  d  of  temprando^  3;  first  n  of  donna^  4; 

TA  of  muta^  5:  DANTE. 


BEATRICE  355 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Divina  Commedia  where,  as  I 
believe,  Beatrice  is  actually  named  in  the  open  text  as  Bella, 
the  Christian  name  of  Dante's  mother.  The  passage  to  which 
I  refer  is  to  be  found  in  Inf.  ii.  52-54,  where  Virgil  is  tellng 
Dante  how  he  was  persuaded  to  come  to  the  aid  of  Dante. 
Virgil  says: 

lo  era  tra  color  che  son  sospesi, 
E  donna  mi  chiamo  beata  e  bella, 
Tal  che  di  comandare  io  la  richiesi. 

In  this,  the  first  allusion  to  Beatrice  in  the  Divina  Commedia, 
it  is  highly  significant  that  Beatrice  is  not  named  as  Beatrice 
and  that  the  allusion  to  her  as  beata  e  bella  may  be  under- 
stood, as  far  as  the  structure  of  the  sentence  is  concerned,  as 
actually  naming  her  in  a  punning  use  of  the  proper  name 
Bella. 

Consider  the  interior  sequences  in  the  passage  that  includes 
the  foregoing  lines: 

50  dirotti  perch 'io  venni   e  quEl   che   intesi 

51  nel  primo  punto   che  Di   te  mi  delve 

52  io  era  tra  coloR  che  son  sospesi 

53  e  donna  Mi   chiamo  BEata  e  bella 

54  tAl   che  di   comandare   io  La   richiesi 

55  lucevan  gli  occhi  suoi  piu  che  LA  stella 

Read  e  of  quel,  50;  d  of  di,  51 ;  r  of  color,  52;  m  of  mi,  ^y, 

A  o{  tal,  54:  MADRE. 

Read  be  oi  beata,  53;  l  of /^,  54;  la,  55:  bella. 

The  interior  sequences  in  the  rest  of  this  canto  repeat  the 
idea  of  mother.  The  following  sequences  are  in  lines  68-75: 

68  e  con  cio  ch'e  mestieri  al  sue  caMpare 

69  I'aiuta  si  ch'io  ne  siA  consolata 

70  io  son  beaTRice  che  ti  faccio  andare 

71  vEgno  di  loco  ove  tornar  disio 

72  amoR  mi  mosse  che  mi  fa  parlare 

73  quanDo  saro  dinanzi  al  signor  mio 

74  di  te  Mi  lodero  sovente  a  lui 

75  tacette  Allora  e  poi  comincia'io 


3S6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

Read:  m  of  campare^  68;  a  of  j/Vz,  69;  tr  of  beatrice^  70;  e  of 
vegno^  71 :  matre. 

Read:  e  o{  vegno^  71;  R  of  amor,  72;  d  of  qtiando,  73;  m  of  mi, 
74;  first  A  of  allora,  75:  madre. 

Note  that  the  two  sequences  key  on  the  e  of  vegno,  71. 

Note  the  initials  of  the  lines  of  the  terzina,  70-72: 

70  I 

71  V 

72  A 

Read:  via 

Beatrice  is  the  "way"  from  one  life  to  another. 
The  following  interior  sequence  is  in  lines  91-94: 

91  io  son   fatta  Da  dio  sua  raerce   tale 

92  che   la  vostRa  raiseria  non  mi   tange 

93  ne   fiamMA  d'esto   incendio  non  m'assale 

94  donna  E  gentil  nel   ciel   che   si   compiange 

Read  from  d  of  da,  91;  r  of  vostra,  92;  ma  of  fiamma,  93; 
e,  94:  madre. 

The  following  interior  sequences  are  in  lines  101-105: 

101  si  mosse  e  venne  al   loco  Dov'io  era 

102  che  Mi   sedea  con   I'ANTica   rachele 

103  disse  beATricE  loda  di   dio  vara 

104  che  non  soccoRri   quel   che   fame   tanto 

105  che  uscio  per  te  dElla  volgare  schiera 

Read  d  of  dov  ,  loi;  ant  of  antica,  102;  last  e  of  beatrice, 

103:  DANTE. 

This  signature  begins  significantly  in  dov  io  era  and  ends  in 
Beatrice,  and  the  other  sequence  passes  through  the  same 
word,  Beatrice. 

Read  m  of  mi,  102;  at  of  beatrice,  103;  first  r  of  soccorri,  104; 
e  of  della,  105:  matre. 

There  is  in  the  Vita  Nuova  another  curious  instance  of  the 
use  of  Bella  which  can  only  be  properly  understood,  I  believe, 


BEATRICE  357 

as  a  punning  reference  to  the  name  of  Dante's  mother.  In 
Vita  Nuova^  xxv,  in  a  highly  elaborate  discussion  of  Uterary 
personification^  a  discussion,  moreover,  which  immediately 
follows  the  cryptic  use  of  Bice,  Dante  cites  a  number  of 
examples  of  personification  in  the  classical  poets.  He  says: 

"That  the  poets  have  thus  spoken  as  has  been  said,  appears 
from  Virgil,  who  says  that  Juno,  that  is,  a  goddess  hostile  to 
the  Trojans,  spoke  to  ^olus,  lord  of  the  winds,  here,  in  the 
first  of  the  ^neid:  Mole,  namque  tibi,  etc.  (iEolus,  here  to 
thee,  etc.);  and  that  this  lord  replied  to  her,  here:  Tuus, 
0  regina,  quid  optes^  etc.  (Thine,  O  queen,  what  thou  askest, 
etc.).  In  this  same  poet  the  inanimate  thing  speaks  to  the 
animate  thing,  in  the  third  of  the  iEneid,  here:  Dardanidoe 
duri,  etc.  (Ye  hardy  Trojans,  etc.).  In  Lucan  the  animate 
thing  speaks  to  the  inanimate,  here:  Multum,  Roma,  tamen 
debes  civilibus  armis  (Much  dost  thou  owe,  O  Rome,  to  civic 
arms).  In  Horace  a  man  speaks  to  his  own  knowledge  as  to 
another  person;  and  not  only  are  they  the  words  of  Horace, 
but  he  says  them  as  the  interpreter  of  the  good  Homer,  here, 
in  his  book  on  Poetry:  Die  mihi,  Musa,  virum,  etc.  (Tell  to 
me,  Muse,  of  the  man,  etc.).  In  Ovid,  Love  speaks  as  if  he 
were  a  human  person,  at  the  beginning  of  the  book  of  the 
Remedy  for  Love,  here:  Bella  mihi,  video,  bella  parantur,  ait 
(Wars  against  me,  I  see,  wars  are  preparing,  he  says).* 

The  use  of  Bella  to  which  I  referred  is  the  Bella,  Latin  for 
"wars,"  in  the  quotation  from  Ovid.  But  before  proceeding  to 
explain  the  cryptic  use  of  Bella  here,  I  wish  to  express  my 
opinion  that  the  whole  passage  is  not  at  all  as  simple  as  it 
seems,  and  that  all  the  quotations  are  intended  to  convey  a 
double  meaning. 

The  cryptic  character  of  the  passage,  indeed,  is  distinctly 
hinted  by  Dante  in  the  words  immediately  following  it. 
He  says: 

"And  by  this  the  matter  may  now  be  clear  to  any  one  who 
is  perplexed  in  any  part  of  this  my  little  book. 

"And  in  order  that  no  uncultured  person  may  derive  any 
over-boldness  herefrom,  I  say,  that  the  poets  do  not  speak 

*  Norton's  translation. 


358      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

thus  without  reason,  and  that  those  who  rhyme  ought  not  to 
speak  thus,  unless  they  have  some  reason  for  what  they  say; 
since  it  would  be  a  great  disgrace  to  him  who  should  rhyme 
anything  under  the  garb  of  a  figure  or  of  rhetorical  coloring, 
if  afterward,  being  asked,  he  should  not  be  able  to  denude 
his  words  of  this  garb,  in  such  wise  that  they  should  have  a 
true  meaning.  And  my  first  friend  and  I  are  well  acquainted 
with  those  who  rhyme  thus  foolishly."  * 

This  concluding  paragraph  should  be  taken  to  heart;  it 
expresses  as  clearly  as  possible  the  cryptic  character  of 
Dante's  imagery.  It  ought  to  be  obvious,  indeed,  from  the 
insistence  with  which  he  dwells  on  the  meaning  which  the 
imiagery  covers,  that  the  reader  is  expressly  directed  to  look 
for  a  hidden  meaning. 

There  is  another  passage  in  the  Vita  Nuova  with  a  some- 
what analogous  reference  to  a  hidden  meaning;  I  will  quote  it 
here,  en  passant^  as  an  indication  of  the  emphasis  with  which 
the  existence  of  a  hidden  meaning  is  proclaimed  by  Dante. 
At  the  close  of  his  comment  on  the  canzone,  Donna^  cK avete 
intelletto  d' amove.  Vita  Nuova,  xix,  Dante  says: 

"I  say,  indeed,  that  to  make  the  meaning  of  this  canzone 
more  clear  it  might  be  needful  to  employ  more  minute 
divisions;  but  nevertheless  it  will  not  displease  me  that  he 
who  has  not  wit  enough  to  understand  it  by  means  of  those 
already  made  should  let  it  alone;  for  surely  I  fear  I  have 
communicated  its  meaning  to  too  many  even  through  these 
divisions  which  have  been  made,  if  it  should  happen  that 
many  should  hear  it.* 

Prepared  now  with  a  suspicion  of  the  duplicity  of  the 
language  of  the  Vita  Nuova,  let  us  return  to  the  examples  of 
personification  which  Dante  quotes  from  the  classical  poets. 
These  quotations,  intended  apparently  as  examples  merely  of 
personification,  are  really  intended  to  illustrate  the  hidden 
meaning  of  the  Vita  Nuova.  The  clues  to  the  hidden  meaning 
which  they  illustrate  appear  in  the  unquoted  context  of  the 
passages  of  which  Dante  quotes  merely  the  beginnings.  As  in 
deciphering  the  cryptic  use  of  Bice  and  oi  per  BE  e  per  ICE 

*  Norton's  translation. 


BEATRICE  359 

it  was  necessary  to  consider  the  omitted  letters,  so  here  it 
will  be  necessary  to  consider  the  omitted  words. 

But  before  considering  the  passages  in  their  entirety,  let 
us  examine  what  they  present  in  the  briefer  form  in  which 
they  appear  in  the  text  of  the  Vita  Nuova.  Notice,  first,  the 
reference  to  Juno,  who,  as  the  wife  of  Jupiter,  is  the  figure  of 
the  divine  mother.  Notice,  next,  in  the  quotation  from  Lucan, 
the  Roma^  which,  as  has  been  developed  earlier,  is,  first,  the 
symbol  of  the  divine  mother  in  the  Christian  church,  and, 
second,  a  palindrome  for  Amor^  the  very  word  which 
appears  in  connection  with  the  cryptic  use  of  Bice  and  per 
Be  e  per  Ice.  In  connection  with  the  two  appearances  of  the 
divine  mother  in  Juno  and  Roma  the  Bella  of  the  quotation 
from  Ovid  may  be  taken  as  at  least  a  hint  that  Bella  is  here 
used  in  a  double  sense  to  suggest  the  name  of  the  mother  of 
Dante.  That  it  is  a  hint  indeed,  and  a  very  strong  hint, 
appears  from  the  fact  that  in  the  passage  to  which  Dante 
refers,  beginning  Dardanidae  duri^  there  appears  the 
command:  "Seek  out  your  ancient  mother."  This  command 
is  uttered  by  the  oracle  whom  ^^neas  has  consulted  in 
regard  to  his  future.  The  passage,  as  in  the  words  of  iEneas, 
is  as  follows: 

"Scarcely  had  I  thus  said,  when  suddenly  all  seemed  to 
tremble,  both  the  temple  itself,  and  the  laurel  of  the  god; 
the  whole  mountain  quaked  around,  and  the  sanctuary  being 
exposed  to  view,  the  tripod  moaned.  In  humble  reverence  we 
fall  to  the  ground,  and  a  voice  reaches  our  ears:  Ye  hardy 
sons  of  Dardanus,  the  same  land  which  first  produced  you 
from  your  forefather's  stock  shall  receive  you  in  its  fertile 
bosom  after  all  your  dangers;  search  out  your  ancient  mother. 
There  the  family  of  i^neas  shall  rule  over  every  coast,  and 
his  children's  children,  and  they  who  from  them  shall 
sprmg.   * 

In  connection  with  the  command  here  expressed  to  "search 
out  your  ancient  mother,"  this  passage  distinctly  develops 
the  idea  of  rebirth  as  to  be  accomplished  by  a  return  to  the 
fruitful  bosom  of  that  mother.  The  means  of  rebirth  here 

*Mneid,  iii.     Davidson's  translation. 


36o      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

suggested  is  thus,  as  we  have  seen  it  to  be  elsewhere, 
incestuous. 

The  passage  which  I  have  just  quoted  is  the  third  referred 
to  by  Dante;  the  two  preceding  it  prepare  for  the  rebirth 
symbolism  with  remarkable  precision.  The  first  passage  to 
which  Dante  refers  reads  as  follows: 

"i^olus  (for  the  sire  of  gods  and  the  king  of  men  hath  given 
thee  power  both  to  smooth  the  waves,  and  raise  them  with 
the  wind),  a  race  by  me  detested  sails  the  Tuscan  Sea,  trans- 
porting Ilium,  and  its  conquered  gods,  into  Italy.  Strike  force 
into  thy  winds,  everset  and  sink  the  ships;  or  drive  them 
different  ways,  and  strew  the  ocean  with  carcasses."* 

It  appears  from  this  passage  that  the  divine  mother  is 
hostile  to  the  Trojans,  who,  as  human  beings,  are  to  be 
considered  as  her  sons;  and  that  in  order  to  wreak  her  wrath 
on  her  sons,  she  appeals  to  yEolus  as  representing  the  power 
of  the  divine  father.  There  thus  appears  the  family  triad  of 
father,  mother,  and  son,  in  which  the  son  is  the  object  of  the 
hostility  of  the  father  and  the  mother.  This  relation  is  exactly 
appropriate  to  the  son  as  incestuous  in  relation  to  his  father 
and  his  mother  as  resisting  the  incestuous  act. 

The  second  of  Dante's  references,  beginning  TuuSy 
0  regina,  quid  optes,  is  the  reply  of  iEolus  to  Juno,  in  which  he 
acknowledges  the  power  of  the  mother  as  supreme. 

Now  the  hostility  of  Juno  as  the  divine  mother  is  offset 
in  the  ^neid  by  the  benignity  of  Venus,  who,  as  the  mother 
of  iEneas,  is  to  be  considered  as  completing  the  dual  char- 
acter of  the  divine  mother.  The  symbolism  of  the  dual  mother 
is  elaborated  in  the  ^neid  to  a  degree  that  has  not,  I  believe, 
been  sufficiently  appreciated;  Juno  and  Venus,  as  represent- 
ing the  two  aspects  of  the  divine  mother  of  the  Trojans,  and 
particularly  of  the  mother  of  iEneas,  have  their  counterparts 
in  Crete,  as  the  malignant  motherland  from  which  the 
Trojans  are  expelled  and  Italy,  as  the  benignant  motherland 
into  which  they  are  received.  Nor  is  it  sufficiently  recognized 
that  the  theme  of  the  Mneid  is  rebirth  involving,  in  the 
return  to  the  ancient  mother,  incest.  It  is  on  account  of 

*JEneid,  i.     Davidson's  translation. 


BEATRICE  361 

this  theme,  which  is  also  to  be  seen  in  the  Homeric  Iliad 
and  Odyssey^  that  Dante  takes  Virgil  as  his  poetic  father; 
for  Virgil  works  out  the  theme  of  rebirth  with  a  conscious 
elaboration  that  is  exceeded  only  by  Dante  himself.  The 
analogy  between  the  two  poems  extends  even  to  the  con- 
ception in  the  jEneid^  as  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  of  the 
infernal  regions  as  the  womb.  This  idea  is  expressly  implied, 
indeed,  by  the  fact  that  iEneas,  in  his  descent  to  the  infernal 
regions,  sees  there  the  shades  of  his  descendants  waiting  for 
their  birth.  The  two  mothers  in  the  JEneid^  as  in  the  Divina 
Commedia,  are  to  be  understood  as,  first,  the  mother  who 
expels  the  child  as  in  birth,  and,  second,  the  mother  who 
receives  the  child  back  into  her  womb  as  in  the  act  of  incest. 

We  have  now  examined  the  first  three  of  Dante's  classical 
instances  of  personification,  and  find  that  they  imply,  with 
an  aptness  that  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  accidental,  the 
mother  symbolism  of  the  Vita  Nuova  and  the  Divina  Com- 
media. The  fourth  of  his  references  is  to  Lucan,  a  reference 
which  includes  the  cryptic  Roma;  the  passage  is  appropriate 
as  applied  to  Dante  himself  in  his  imagined  ascent  to 
Paradise.  The  passage  reads  as  follows: 

"Still,  much  does  Rome  owe  to  the  arms  of  her  citizens, 
since  for  thy  (Nero)  sake  these  events  have  come  to  pass. 

"When,  thy  allotted  duties  fulfilled,  thou  shalt  late  repair 
to  the  stars,  the  palace  of  heaven,  preferred  by  thee,  shall 
receive  thee,  the  skies  rejoicing;  whether  it  please  thee  to 
wield  the  sceptre,  or  whether  to  ascend  the  flaming  chariot 
of  Phoebus,  and  with  thy  wandering  fire  to  survey  the  earth, 
in  no  way  alarmed  at  the  change  of  the  sun;  by  every 
divinity  will  it  be  yielded  to  thee  and  to  thy  free  choice  will 
nature  leave  it  what  god  thou  shalt  wish  to  be,  where  to 
establish  the  sovereignty  of  the  world."* 

Dante's  next  reference  is  to  a  description  of  "the  man"; 
this  description  is  likewise  appropriate  to  himself  (appropriate 
both  as  to  his  wanderings  among  "many  men  and  cities" 
and  also  as  to  his  allegorical  method  of  mingling  "feigned 
with  true").  The  passage  in  Ars  Poetica  reads  as  follows: 

*Pharsalia,  i.     Riley's  translation,  London,  1853. 


362      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

'"Sing  for  me,  my  muse,  the  man  who,  after  the  time  of 
the  destruction  of  Troy,  surveyed  the  manners  and  cities  of 
many  men,'  He  meditates  not  to  produce  smoke  from  a  flash, 
but  out  of  smoke  to  elicit  fire,  that  he  may  thence  bring  forth 
his  instances  of  the  marvelous  with  beauty,  such  as  Anti- 
phates,  Scylla,  the  Cyclops,  and  Charybdis.  Nor  does  he 
date  Diomede's  return  from  Meleager's  death,  nor  trace  the 
rise  of  the  Trojan  war  from  Leda's  eggs:  he  always  hastens 
on  to  the  event:  and  hurries  away  his  reader  into  the  midst 
of  interesting  circumstances,  no  otherwise  than  as  if  they 
were  already  known;  and  what  he  despairs  of,  as  to  receiving 
a  polish  from  his  touch,  he  omits;  and  in  such  a  manner  forms 
his  fictions,  so  intermingles  the  false  with  the  true,  that  the 
middle  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  beginning,  nor  the  end 
with  the  middle."* 

The  last  of  the  classical  allusions  that  Dante  makes,  the 
one  in  which  appears  the  Bella^  is  again  appropriate  to  Dante 
in  its  description  of  t\\Q.war  of  love,  which  is  expressed  indeed 
in  the  Divina  Commedia  as  resulting  from  the  symbolized 
incest.  Notice  again,  in  this  passage,  the  reference  to  the 
mother.  The  passage  in  Remedium  Amoris  reads  as  follows: 

"The  God  of  Love  had  read  the  title  and  the  name  of  this 
treatise  when  he  said,  'War,  I  see,  war  is  being  meditated 
against  me.'  Forbear,  Cupid,  to  accuse  thy  poet  of  such  a 
crime;  me,  who  so  oft  have  borne  thy  standards  with  thee 
for  my  leader.  I  am  no  son  of  Tydeus,  wounded  by  whom, 
thy  mother  returned  into  the  yielding  air  with  the  steeds 
of  Mars.  Other  youths  full  oft  grow  cool;  I  have  ever  loved; 
and  shouldst  thou  enquire  what  I  am  doing  even  now,  I  am 
still  in  love."t 

The  last  sentence  recalls  the  lines,  Purg.  xxiv.  52-54,  in 
which  Dante  describes  himself: 

lo  mi  son  un  che,  quando 
Amor  mi  spira,  noto,  ed  a  quel  modo 
Che  ditta  dentro,  vo  significando. 

*Smart's  translation. 
tRiley's  translation. 


BEATRICE  363 

The  foregoing  glance  at  the  sense  of  the  passages  cited  by 
Dante  as  examples  of  personification  brings  to  light  such 
astonishing  analogies  with  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  Vita 
Nuova  and  the  Divina  Commedia  as  to  suggest  that  the 
ostensible  reason  for  referring  to  them  is  only  another 
schermo  della  veritade.  This  suspicion  is  reinforced  by  the 
hint  he  gives  of  a  hidden  meaning  in  his  discussion,  quoted 
above,  of  the  necessity  of  having  a  meaning  from  which  the 
imagery  may  be  denuded.  The  whole  discussion,  with  its 
elaboration  of  mother  symbolism,  suggests  that  the  Latin 
Bella  may  have  been  intended  as  a  punning  reference  to  the 
name  of  Dante's  mother.  The  mention  of  Bella  immediately 
after  the  reference  to  the  man  in  a  passage  so  aptly  describing 
Dante  himself  makes  the  conjecture,  in  my  opinion,  more 
than  probable — more  than  probable  especially  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  reader,  in  the  suppressed  words  of  the  quotation, 
is  directed  to  seek  out  "the  ancient  mother."  In  fact,  the 
scholastic  elaboration  of  the  passage  must  seem  curiously 
out  of  place  and  unmotivated  in  the  general  simple  air  of  the 
Vita  Nuova  unless  it  may  be  understood,  as  Dante  himself 
hints,  as  having  some  such  hidden  meaning. 


LIA  AND  MATELDA 

There  is  still  another  instance  in  the  Divina  Commedia  of 
what  I  regard  as  a  punning  use  oi  bella  for  Bella;  it  occurs  in 
Dante's  description  of  the  dream  in  which  he  sees  Lia,  Purg. 
xxvii.  97-99: 

Giovane  e  Bella  in  sogno  mi  parea 
Donna  vedere  andar  per  una  landa 
Cogliendo  fiori. 

In  the  form  of  Lia  Dante  sees  his  mother  Bella  in  a  dream.  But 
Lia  is  to  be  understood  as  one  of  the  two  aspects  of  his  mother; 
the  other  aspect  is  Rachel,  to  whom  Lia  refers.  This  dream  of 
Lia  and  Rachel  is  a  prophetic  dream,  in  that  it  foreshadows 
the  two  maternal  figures  of  Matelda  and  Beatrice  whom 


364      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Dante  is  to  see,  on  awakening,  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise. 
Matelda  and  Beatrice  are  likewise  to  be  considered,  as  I  shall 
show,  as  representing  the  mother  as  a  duality. 

That  Lia  is  indeed  a  dream  form  of  the  mother  appears 
from  the  cryptogram  in  the  passage  in  which  she  speaks.  For 
this  cryptogram  see  page  409. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  Matelda,  who,  as  is  generally  recog- 
nized, corresponds  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  to  Lia  in  the 
dream.  The  maternal  character  of  Matelda  is  indicated  with 
the  greatest  possible  precision.  In  the  first  place,  the  very 
sight  of  her  suggests  to  Dante  a  figure  in  which  the  word 
madre  occurs,  Purg.  xxviii.  49-51: 

Tu  mi  fai  rimembrar,  dove  e  qual  era 
Proserpina  nel  tempo  che  perdette 
La  madre  lei,  ed  ella  priniavera. 

Moreover,  Proserpina,  whom  Matelda  here  suggests  to 
Dante,  was  the  mother  goddess  of  the  spring.  The  maternal 
character  is  still  further  indicated  by  the  comparison  which 
Dante  makes  of  her  with  Venus,  Purg.  xxviii.  64-66: 

Non  credo  che  splendesse  tanto  lume 

Sotto  le  ciglia  a  Venere  trafitta 

Dal  figlio,  fuor  di  tutto  suo  costume. 

This  comparison  of  Matelda  with  Venus  as  the  divine 
mother  is  further  remarkable  for  the  fact  of  the  incestuous 
relation  indicated  as  existing  between  Venus  and  her  son 
Cupid,  by  whom  she  is  here  said  to  be  trafitta  fuor  di  tutto  suo 
costume.  There  is  only  one  interpretation  to  be  put  upon  the 
act  of  Cupid  in  wounding  his  own  mother. 

Another,  and  crucial,  indication  of  the  maternal  character 
of  Matelda  is  the  fact  that  it  is  she  who  bathes  Dante  in  the 
mystic  stream.  This  bathing,  like  the  sacrament  of  baptism, 
symbolizes  birth,  the  symbol  of  the  immersing  waters  being 
borrowed  from  the  amniotic  fluid  in  which  the  child  is  born. 

There  is  no  lack  of  cryptographic  proof  of  the  maternal 
character  of  Matelda.  Following  are  the  proper  names  in  the 
passage  which  describes  Matelda,  Purg.  xxviii.  64-75: 


BEATRICE  365 


VENERE 

ELLESPONTO 

XERSE 

LEANDRO 

SESTO 

ABIDO 


X  is  not  an  Italian  letter.  As  a  sign  of  the  cross  it  may 
be  considered,  as  we  have  already  seen,  as  equivalent  to 
the  letter  t,  another  sign  of  the  cross.  Substitute,  accord- 
ingly, T  for  the  initial  x  of  xerse,  and  consider  in  all  the 
proper  names  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 

V 

EL 

T 

LEA 

S 

ABI 

Read:  bella  e  vista 

Following  are  the  four  terzine  which  include  the  speech  of 
Matelda: 

'Vol  siete  nuovi,  e  forse  perch'  io  rido,'         76 
Comincio  ella,  'in  questo  loco  eletto 
Air  umana  natura  per  suo  nido, 

Maravigliando  tienvi  alcun  sospetto;  79 

Ma  luce  rende  il  salmo  Delectasti, 
Che  puote  disnebbiar  vostro  intelletto. 

E  tu  che  sei  dinanzi,  e  mi  pregasti,  82 

Di'  s'  altro  vuoi  udir,  ch'  io  venni  presta 
Ad  ogni  tua  question,  tanto  che  basti.' 

'L'  acqua,'  diss'  io,  'e  il  suon  della  foresta,  85 
Impugna  dentro  a  me  novella  fede 
Di  cosa,  ch'  io  udi'  contraria  a  questa.' 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  four  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


366      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

76       vol 

79  MAR 

82         E 
85         LA 

Read:  velo  maria 

The  passage  which  describes  Dante's  baptism  in  the  mystic 
stream  at  the  hands  of  Matelda  is  as  follows,  Purg.  xxxi. 
97-111: 

Quando  fui  presso  alia  beata  riva,  97 

Asperges  vie  si  dolcemente  udissi, 

Ch'  io  nol  so  rimembrar,  non  ch'  io  lo  scriva. 
La  bella  Donna  nelle  braccia  aprissi,  100 

Abbracciommi  la  testa,  e  mi  sommerse, 

Ove  convenne  ch'  io  V  acqua  inghiottissi; 
Indi  mi  tolse,  e  bagnato  mi  ofFerse  103 

Dentro  alia  danza  delle  quattro  belle, 

E  ciascuna  del  braccio  mi  coperse. 
'Noi  sem  qui  ninfe,  e  nel  ciel  semo  stelle;  106 

Pria  che  Beatrice  discendesse  al  mondo, 

Fummo  ordinate  a  lei  per  sue  ancelle. 
Menrenti  agli  occhi  suoi;  ma  nel  giocondo  109 

Lume  ch'  e  dentro  aguzzeranno  i  tuoi 

Le  tre  di  la,  che  miran  piu  profondo.' 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  five  terzine: 


97 

QUA 

100 

LA  BEL 

103 

I 

106 

NOI  S 

109 

M 

Read: 

BELLA 

SI  NOMA  QUI 

For  the  cryptogram  on  the  Latin  words  Asperges  me,  line 
98,  see  page  284. 

Following  are  interior  sequences  in  the  lines   describing 
the  first  appearance  of  Matelda,  Purg.  xxviii.  39-43,  48-51: 


BEATRICE  367 

39  per  Maraviglia  tutt'altro  pensare 

40  una  Donna  soletta  che  si  gia 

41  cantAndo  ed  iscegliendo   fior  da   fiore 

42  ond'ERa  pinta  tutta  la  sua  via 

43  deh  BELLA  donna  ch'ai   raggi  d'amore 

Read  in  a  vertical  line  m  of  maraviglia^  39;  d  of  donna^  40; 
second  a  of  cantandoy  41;  er  or  era^  42;  bella,  43:  madre 

BELLA. 

Maraviglia^  as  we  have  already  noted,  is  an  anagram  for 

VAGLI  MARIA. 

48  tanto  ch'io  possa  intenDEr  che   tu  canti 

49  tu  mi   fai   rimembRar  dove   e  qual   era 

50  proserpinA  nel   tempo  che  perdette 

51  la  Madre  lei  ed  ella  primavera 

Read  de  of  irjtender,  48;  second  r  of  rimemhrar^  49;  a  of 
proserpina,  50;  m  of  madre ^  51 :  madre. 

Note  that  this  word  begins  with  the  initial  of  the  word 
madre  in  the  text  and  runs  through  Proserpina^  a  recognized 
mother  image. 

Various  attempts  have  been  made  to  identify  Matelda 
with  historic  persons  bearing  the  same  name.  In  view  of  the 
unmistakable  mother  symbolism  of  Matelda  I  regard  these 
identifications  as  beside  the  mark.  I  suggest,  on  the  contrary, 
that  Dante  chose  the  name  Matelda,  just  as  I  have  tried  to 
show  that  he  chose  the  name  Beatrice,  for  cryptographic 
reasons.  The  name  Matelda  is  composed  of  letters  derived 
from  mater ^  Bella,  and  Dante  in  the  following  order: 

MAT         from         MATER 
EL  from  BELLA 

DA  from         DANTE 

There  appears  in  the  Vita  Nuova  in  association  with 
Beatrice  a  figure  which,  as  I  think,  corresponds  to  Matelda. 
This  figure  is  Giovanna,  mentioned  in  the  sonnet,  Vita 
Nuova  J  xxiv,  with  Bice; 

lo  vidi  monna  Vanna  e  monna  Bice. 


368      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

In  the  prose  description  of  his  meeting  the  two  ladies,  the 
meeting  which  is  recorded  also  in  the  sonnet,  Dante  says  of 
monna  Vanna  that  she/w  gia  molto  donna  di  questo  mio  primo 
amico.  E  lo  nome  di  questa  donna  era  Giovanna^  salvo  che  per  la 
sua  beltade^  secondo  cli  altri  crede,  imposto  Vera  nome 
PRIMAVERA:  e  cost  era  chiamata.  E  appresso  lei  guardandOy 
vidi  venire  la  mirabile  Beatrice,  ^ueste  donne  andaro  presso  di 
me  cosi  Funa  appresso  V altra^  e  parvemi  che  Amore  mi  parlasse 
nel  core^  e  dicesse:  ^uella  prima  e  nominata  Primavera  solo  per 
questa  venuta  d'oggi;  che  io  mossi  lo  impositore  del  nome  a 
chiamarla  cost:  ' PRIMJFERJ,'  cioe  'prima  verra,'  lo  dtc  he 
Beatrice  si  mostrera  dopo  Fimaginazione  del  suo  fedele. 

There  is  indicated  here  an  intimate,  even  mystic,  asso- 
ciation of  the  two  ladies,  which  is  best  to  be  explained,  it 
seems  to  me,  by  understanding  them  to  represent  together 
the  dual  character  of  the  mother.  On  this  hypothesis  Gio- 
vanna  must  correspond  to  Matelda;  and  there  are,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  two  verbal  coincidences  which  support  the 
hypothesis.  In  the  dream  of  Lia,  who,  as  is  generally  recog- 
nized, is  the  dream  form  of  Matelda,  Lia  is  spoken  of  as 
giovane  e  bella.  I  have  already  suggested  that  bella  is  a 
punning  use  for  Bella;  and  I  likewise  suggest  that  giovane  is  a 
punning  reference  to  the  Giovanna  of  the  Vita  Nuova.  This 
pun  is  no  worse,  at  any  rate,  than  Dante's  own  of  primavera 
for  PRIMA  VERRA.  The  identification  thus  suggested  ot 
Giovanna  and  Matelda  is  suggested  again  in  the  words  in 
which  Dante,  addressing  Matelda,  says  that  she  reminds  him 
of  Proserpina  at  the  time  when  Proserpina  lost  primavera. 
And  there  is  another  suggestion  in  Par.  xii.  80,  in  the  words: 

O  madre  sua  veramente  Giovanna. 

If  my  identification  of  Giovanna  with  one  of  the  two 
mothers  is  correct,  there  remains  to  explain  Dante's  state- 
ment that  she  was  gia  molto  donna  di  questo  mio  primo  amico. 
Now  the  first  friend  of  Dante  was  Guido  Cavalcanti;  but  as 
the  meaning  of  nothing  in  allegory  is  ever  simple,  Dante's 
"first  friend,"  in  the  temporal  sense  of  the  word,  may  also  be 
understood  to  be  his  father.  That  the  father  is  indeed  a  friend 


BEATRICE  369 

is  declared  by  Dante  himself  in  the  Vita  Nuova  when  he  says, 
in  connection  with  the  death  of  the  father  of  Beatrice,  that 
"there  is  no  friendship  so  intimate  as  that  of  a  good  father 
with  a  good  child,  and  of  a  good  child  with  a  good  father." 
With  the  primo  aynico,  then,  understood  as  having  a  double 
reference  to  Guido  Cavalcanti  and  to  Dante's  father,  there  is 
nothing  inconsistent  in  regarding  Giovanna,  the  lady  of  this 
friend,  as  representing,  under  one  of  the  two  maternal 
aspects,  the  mother  of  Dante.  I  conclude,  therefore,  with  the 
suggestion  that  just  as  in  the  Divina  Commedia  the  dual 
character  of  Bella  is  represented  by  Beatrice  and  Matelda, 
it  is  represented  in  the  Vita  Nuova  by  Beatrice  and  Giovanna, 
and  in  the  Convivio  by  Beatrice  and  Lucia. 


LA  VITA  NUOVA 

As  I  have  referred  so  constantly  in  the  preceding  pages  to 
the  Vita  Nuova,  I  will  record  here  my  conviction  that  the 
Vita  Nuova  was  conceived  and  written  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  Divina  Commedia.  There  is  not  a  detail  of  the  Vita  Nuova 
that  is  not  consistent  with  the  plan  of  the  Divina  Commedia; 
the  consistency,  indeed,  is  so  close  that  it  seems  impossible  to 
accept  the  orthodox  opinion  that  the  relation  of  the  two 
works  is  more  or  less  accidental.  I  have  not  the  space  to 
develop  here  the  essential  unity  of  conception  which  the  Vita 
Nuova  and  the  Divina  Commedia  reveal.  For  cryptographic 
evidence  of  this  unity  see  pp.  420-1.  I  will  confine  myself  at 
present  to  a  brief  comment  on  the  first  sonnet  of  the  Vita 
Nuova;  in  this  sonnet  the  complete  conception  not  only  of 
the  Vita  Nuova  itself  but  of  the  Divina  Commedia  is  expressed 
in  parvo. 

The  first  sonnet  of  the  Vita  Nuova,  like  the  Divina  Com- 
media, purports  to  be  the  record  of  a  dream;  and  this  dream 
has  for  Dante,  like  the  prophetic  dreams  of  the  Bible  and 
again  like  the  Divina  Commedia,  a  hidden  meaning.  The 
sonnet  is  addressed  to  friends  of  Dante's;  it  describes  the 
dream  to  them  and  asks  them  to  interpret  it.  In  none  of  the 


370      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

responses  to  the  sonnet,  however,  was  the  interpretation 
given  correctly.  Lo  verace  giudhio  del  detto  sogno^  says  Dante, 
rion  fu  veduto  allora  per  alcuno^  ma  ora  e  manijestissimo  alii 
piu  semplici.  How  seriously  this  last  statement  is  to  be  taken 
may  be  imagined  from  Dante's  reference,  Purg.  xvi.  88,  to 
r anima  semplicetta^  che  sa  nulla. 

The  prose  account  of  the  dream  is  as  follows: 
"And  thinking  of  her  (Beatrice),  a  sweet  slumber  over- 
came me,  in  which  a  marvelous  vision  appeared  to  me;  for 
methought  I  saw  in  my  chamber  a  cloud  of  the  color  of  fire, 
within  which  I  discerned  a  shape  of  a  Lord  of  aspect  fearful 
to  whoso  might  look  upon  him;  and  he  seemed  to  me  so  joyful 
within  himself  that  a  marvelous  thing  it  was;  and  in  his  words 
he  said  many  things  which  I  understood  not,  save  a  few, 
among  which  I  understood  these:  Ego  Dominus  tuns  (I  am 
thy  Lord).  In  his  arms  meseemed  to  see  a  person  sleeping, 
naked,  save  that  she  seemed  to  me  to  be  wrapped  lightly  in  a 
crimson  cloth;  whom  I,  regarding  very  intently,  recognized 
as  the  lady  of  the  salutation,  who  had  the  day  before  deigned 
to  salute  me.  And  in  one  of  his  hands  it  seemed  to  me  he  held 
a  thing  which  was  all  on  fire;  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  he 
said  these  words:  Vide  cor  tuum  (Behold  thy  heart).  And 
when  he  had  remained  awhile,  it  seemed  to  me  that  he  awoke 
her  that  slept;  and  he  so  far  prevailed  upon  her  with  his  craft 
as  to  make  her  eat  that  thing  which  was  burning  in  his  hand; 
and  she  ate  it  timidly.  After  this  it  was  but  a  short  while 
before  his  joy  turned  into  most  bitter  lament;  and  as  he  wept 
he  gathered  up  this  lady  in  his  arms,  and  with  her  it  seemed 
to  me  that  he  went  away  toward  heaven.  Whereat  I  felt  such 
great  anguish,  that  my  weak  slumber  could  not  endure  it, 
but  was  broken,  and  I  awoke."  * 

The  obvious  interpretation  of  this  dream,  in  the  light  of  the 
subsequent  death  of  Beatrice,  is  that  it  was  a  prophetic 
dream  in  which  the  death  of  Beatrice  was  foreshadowed.  But 
it  ought  to  be  equally  obvious  that  this  dream  is  also  the 
exact  equivalent  of  the  dream  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  in 
which  Dante  imagines  himself  as  being  carried  to  heaven  by 

*Norton's  translation. 


BEATRICE  371 

Beatrice.  In  the  dream  of  the  Fita  Nuova  the  "Lord  of  aspect 
fearful,"  or  Dominus^  is  the  equivalent  of  God  in  the  Divina 
Co7nmedia;  the  lady  in  his  arms  the  equivalent  of  Beatrice; 
and  the  heart  of  Dante  the  equivalent  of  Dante  himself. 
The  lady  by  eating  the  heart  and  then  being  carried  to 
Heaven  is  analogous,  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  to  Beatrice 
carrying  Dante  to  Heaven  in  her  womb.  In  myth  and  dream, 
the  act  of  eating  is  commonly  a  symbol  of  the  act  of  impreg- 
nation; this  symbolism  survives  in  various  stories,  as  in  the 
Bible  and  in  Boccaccio,  of  impregnation  through  eating  the 
mandrake. 

The  obvious  analogies  which  I  have  here  suggested  be- 
tween the  dream  of  the  Vita  Nuova  and  the  Divina  Corn- 
media  are  far,  however,  from  giving  a  complete  interpretation 
of  the  dream.  Let  us  examine,  therefore,  for  further  light,  the 
provenance  of  the  dramatic  situation  which  the  dream  in  the 
Vita  Nuova  presents.  This  situation,  as  Scherillo  has  shown 
conclusively,  is  derived  from  a  popular  troubador  story  of  a 
feudal  lord  who  discovers  the  infidelity  of  his  wife  with  one  of 
his  liegemen  (Italian,  fedeli;  old  French,  feaux;  Provengal 
fiel).  In  revenge  the  lord  kills  the  paramour  of  his  wife,  cuts 
out  his  heart,  and  compels  his  wife  to  eat  it.  Dante  can 
hardly  be  imagined  to  have  been  ignorant  of  this  story; 
indeed,  he  seems  to  indicate  the  troubador  provenance  of  his 
dream  in  his  reference.  Vita  Nuova^  iii.  68,  to  trovatoriy  and  in 
his  use  oi fedeli^  line  72,  as  expressing  the  relationship  of  the 
trovatori  to  their  feudal  lord. 

Now  in  appropriating  from  this  gruesome  tale  of  illicit  love, 
jealousy,  and  murder  the  situation  presented  in  his  dream, 
Dante  can  only  be  understood  as  portraying  Beatrice  as  a 
married  woman  who  has  been  unfaithful  to  her  husband. 
She  is  portrayed,  moreover,  as  having  been  unfaithful  with 
one  of  her  husband's  fedeli,  who  must  be  understood  as 
standing,  in  the  feudal  system,  in  a  filial  relation  to  their 
lord.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  cult  of  the  mother  as 
underlying  the  conventions  of  chivalric  love;  the  con- 
ventions of  chivalric  love  appear  in  the  present  instance, 
where  the  lover  of  the  married  lady  stands  in  a  relation 


3/-i 


THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


analogous  to  the  filial  relation  both  to  her  and  to  her  husband. 
This  filial  relationship  is  immediately  intensified  in  the  dream 
by  the  fact  that  the  "Lord  of  aspect  fearful"  is  conceived  as 
godlike  by  the  human  Dante.  Along  with  the  illicit  love 
which  the  dream  thus  expresses  as  existing  between  Dante 
and  Beatrice  it  is  further  implied,  therefore,  that  this  illicit 
love  has  an  incestuous  character.  Important,  moreover, 
to  remember  in  connection  with  the  sin  of  the  two  lovers  is 
the  punishment  meted  out  for  it.  Since,  as  I  pointed  out 
above,  the  eating  of  the  heart  symbolizes  the  sexual  act,  the 
punishment,  as  in  all  the  punishments  in  the  Inferno^  is  a 
repetition  of  the  sin  itself. 

The  first  dream  of  the  Vita  Nuova,  paralleling,  as  I  have 
shown  that  it  does,  the  dream  of  the  Divina  Commedia,  is  to 
be  interpreted,  therefore,  as  referring  to  the  existence  of 
illicit  love  between  Dante  and  Beatrice,  who  is  portrayed  as 
married  to  the  "Lord  of  aspect  fearful."  This  "Lord  of  aspect 
fearful,"  moreover,  is  to  be  understood  as  a  father  to  Dante, 
for  in  Fita  Nuova,  xii,  he  addresses  Dante  as  "my  son."  The 
implication,  therefore,  of  the  maternal  character  of  Beatrice 
in  the  dream  is  not  to  be  avoided. 

Now  the  essential  situation  in  the  dream,  as  1  have  thus 
defined  it,  is  the  essential  situation  in  the  whole  of  the  Vita 
Nuova.  The  apparent  innocence  of  the  tone  of  the  Vita  Nuova 
has  concealed  the  fact  that  it  tells  a  story  of  incestuous  love, 
jealousy,  and  murder — a  story  of  father  and  son  as  rivals  for 
the  possession  of  the  mother.  Beatrice  is  the  mother;  the 
father  is  God,  or  Love,  who  desires  to  have  Beatrice  with 
him  in  Heaven;  the  son  is  Dante,  who  desires  to  have  Beatrice 
with  him  on  earth.  In  these  conflicting  desires  is  represented 
the  jealousy  of  the  father  and  the  son,  a  jealousy  which 
wreaks  its  revenge  in  the  death  of  Beatrice,  and,  as  symbol- 
ized in  the  eating  of  Dante's  heart,  in  the  death  of  Dante. 
But  the  death  of  Dante  must  be  understood  as  an  ambivalent 
symbol.  It  symbolizes  not  only  his  death  but  also  his  entrance 
into  the  womb  of  the  mother,  through  whom  he  thus  attains 
his  rebirth,  or  Vita  Nuova. 

The  situation  suggested  in  the  dream  is  the  identical  situ- 


BEATRICE  •  373 

ation  which  was  recognized  by  medieval  symboHsts  in  the 
relation  of  Christ  to  Mary — an  incestuous  relation,  in  so  far 
as  it  expresses  the  son's  return  to  the  source  of  life,  the  divine 
mother.  It  is  this  reunion  and  rebirth  which  is  symbolized  by 
the  death  on  the  cross,  by  the  descent  into  Hell,  and  by  the 
ascent  into  Heaven.  In  the  Vita  Nuova^  therefore,  Dante  is 
associating  himself  with  Christ,  and  Beatrice  with  Mary, 
under  the  guise  of  the  conventions  of  chivalric  love. 

THE  DESCENT  OF  BEATRICE 

In  the  light  of  the  maternal  character  of  Beatrice  as  it  thus 
appears  in  the  essential  situation  of  the  Viia  Nuova,  let  us 
now  examine  the  essential  situation  in  which  she  appears  in 
Inferno.  What,  in  other  words,  does  the  Divina  Commedia  say 
that  Beatrice  does  to  rescue  Dante  from  Hell? 

The  words  of  Beatrice  herself  in  reference  to  Dante  give 
the  answer,  Purg.  xxx.  124-141: 

Si  tosto  come  in  sulla  soglia  fui  124 

Di  mia  seconda  etade,  e  mutai  vita, 

Questi  si  tolse  a  me,  e  diessi  altrui, 
Quando  di  came  a  spirto  era  salita,  127 

E  bellezza  e  virtii  cresciuta  m'  era, 

Fu'  io  a  lui  men  cara  e  men  gradita; 
E  volse  i  passi  suoi  per  via  non  vera,  130 

Imagini  di  ben  seguendo  false, 

Che  nulla  promission  rendono  intera. 
Ne  impetrare  ispirazion  mi  valse,  133 

Con  le  quali  ed  in  sogno  ed  altrimenti 

Lo  rivocai;  si  poco  a  lui  ne  calse. 
Tanto  giu  cadde,  che  tutti  argomenti  136 

Alia  salute  sua  eran  gia  corti, 

Fuor  che  mostrargli  le  perdute  genti. 
Per  questo  visitai  1'  uscio  dei  morti,  139 

Ed  a  colui  che  1'  ha  quassu  condotto, 

Li  preghi  miei  piangendo  furon  porti. 

It  was  not  of  her  own  will,  however,  that  Beatrice,  as  she 
here  tells  us,  visited  the  portal  of  the  dead;  she  was  moved, 
as  we  are  told  in  Inf.  ii.,  by  the  command,  transmitted  by 


374      TH-E    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Lucia,  of  the  divine  mother  Mary.  She  was  thus  the  instru- 
ment of  the  divine  mother;  and  the  maternal  significance  of 
her  act  should  appear  from  what  we  have  already  discovered 
as  to  the  female  symbolism  of  the  gate  of  Hell.  In  the  gate  of 
Hell  (or  vulva)  Beatrice  meets  the  paternal  image  of  Virgil, 
and  the  meeting  of  father  and  mother  in  such  a  region  results, 
naturally,  in  the  birth,  or  rebirth,  of  the  filial  Dante.  But  it  is 
not  on  this  aspect  of  the  symbolism  of  the  visit  of  Beatrice  to 
the  portal  of  the  dead  that  I  wish  to  dwell  at  present;  I  wish, 
instead,  to  call  attention  to  the  striking  analogies  which  may 
be  shown  to  exist  between  the  visit  of  Beatrice  to  the  portal 
of  the  dead  and  certain  ancient  myths. 

Common  to  many  peoples  are  myths  of  the  descent  of  a 
living  person  to  the  abode  of  the  dead.  These  myths  may  be 
divided  into  two  groups,  corresponding  to  the  sex  of  the 
person  supposed  to  make  the  descent.  Among  the  men  to 
whom  the  miraculous  feat  is  ascribed  are  Hercules,  Ulysses, 
iEneas,  and  St.  Paul.  Many  other  examples  may  be  cited, 
and  it  is  obvious  that  there  are  analogies  between  these 
descents  and  the  descent  of  Christ  into  Hell  after  the  cruci- 
fixion. The  myth  of  the  descent  of  a  living  man  into  the  abode 
of  the  dead  is  referable  to  the  sun  myth,  according  to  which 
the  sun  descends  into  the  earth  at  evening  in  order  to  be 
reborn  in  the  morning.  In  the  last  analysis,  however,  the 
rebirth  symbolism,  which  is  a  constant  feature  in  all 
variations  of  the  sun  myth,  symbolizes  the  rebirth  not  of  the 
sun  qua  sun,  but  of  the  hero,  man,  as  accomplished  by 
an  act  of  reunion  with  the  original  source  of  his  life.  As  the 
original  source  of  a  man's  life  is  his  mother,  these  myths  are 
invariably  expressed  in  terms  implying  incest. 

In  the  variation  of  the  myth  in  which  the  person  supposed 
to  make  the  descent  is  a  woman  the  symbolism  is  still  the 
symbolism  of  rebirth;  the  person  to  be  reborn,  however,  is 
not  the  woman  who  makes  the  descent,  but  her  son  whom  she 
descends  into  the  abode  of  the  dead  to  deliver,  or  bring  to 
life  again.  The  woman  who  makes  the  descent  is  invariably 
the  mother. 

An  example  of  the  descent  of  the  mother  to  save  her  son 


BEATRICE  375 

appears  in  the  myth  of  the  great  Babylonian  mother  goddess 
Istar,  who  descended  into  Arahi,  or  Hades,  to  bring  back  to 
Hfe  her  son  Tammuz.  Analogous  to  this  story  is  the  Greek 
myth  of  the  descent  of  the  mother  goddess  Aphrodite  to 
redeem  Adonis.  As  indicative  of  the  sex  symbolism  which 
these  myths  expressed  to  those  who  believed  in  them,  it  is 
said  that  in  the  temple  of  the  Syriac  Aphrodite  sexual 
relations  with  the  priestesses  representing  her  were  supposed 
to  ransom  a  soul  from  Hades,  just  as  Adonis  had  been 
ransomed.* 

Hell,  or  the  abode  of  the  dead  in  general,  is  invariably  a 
symbol  of  the  mother.  Accordingly  it  is  necessary  to  recognize 
that  in  the  myth  of  the  descent  of  the  mother  into  Hell,  Hell 
and  the  mother  are  to  be  identified;  she  descends  into  the 
womb  of  the  earth  because  the  womb,  as  the  source  of  life, 
is  what  she  herself  becomes  at  the  moment  of  delivering 
her  child. 

The  descent  of  the  mother  into  the  abode  of  the  dead 
appears  also,  in  a  modified  form,  in  the  myth  of  the  great 
Egyptian  mother  goddess  Isis.  And  it  is  of  particular  interest 
to  note,  in  this  connection,  that  as  a  result  of  the  contact  of 
the  Egyptian  myth  with  early  Christianity,  Isis  became 
identified  with  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Now  the  myth  of  the  descent  of  the  mother  into  the  abode 
of  the  dead  survived — and  it  is  in  this  survival  that  the  myth 
principally  concerns  us  here — comparatively  late  into  the 
Christian  era  in  the  central  female  figure  of  the  Gnostic 
belief,  Sophia,  or,  according  to  certain  sects,  Bardelo.  As  a 
preeminent  feature  of  a  system  of  belief  with  which  Dante 
was  intimately  acquainted  (the  intimacy  is  evident,  indeed, 
in  the  Gnostic  elements  in  the  Divtna  Commedia  that  I  have 
already  pointed  out  and  in  many  others  which  I  lack  space  to 
discuss  here),  the  maternal  symbolism  of  the  descent  of 
Sophia  must  have  been  understood  by  Dante.  The  fact,  there- 
fore, that  he  reproduces  in  the  myth  of  Beatrice  a  similar 
descent  must  be  taken  to  indicate  that  he  intends  for 
Beatrice  a  similar  mother  symbolism. 

*See  Hastings:  Dictionary  oj  Religion  and  Ethics;  Descent  to  Hades. 


376      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

There  is,  moreover,  a  feature  in  Christian  beHef  which 
corresponds  to  the  descent  of  the  mother  as  we  have  already 
seen  it  in  primitive  myth  and  in  Gnosticism.  The  feature  to 
which  I  refer  is  the  descent  to  the  earth  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
the  form  of  a  dove.  In  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  male, 
the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  form  of  a  dove  is  under- 
stood as  the  male  principle  through  which  the  Virgin  Mary 
conceived  her  divine  child.  In  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
as  female,  the  descent  in  the  form  of  a  dove  to  Mary  must  be 
understood  as  an  expression  of  the  identity  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  Mary  as  the  divine  mother. 

The  descent  of  the  mother  has  a  double  meaning  in  ancient 
and  medieval  symbolism  which  I  have  no  space  to  develop 
here  in  detail.  It  means,  first,  the  act  of  birth:  the  mother 
descends  to  deliver  her  child;  and  it  means,  second,  the  act  by 
which  the  child  is  conceived:  t\\Q  fall  of  the  mother,  as  in 
the  fall  of  Eve.  The  delivery  of  the  child,  as  symbolized  in 
myths  of  the  descent  of  the  mother,  and  the  conception  of 
the  child,  as  symbolized  in  myths  of  the  fallen  mother,  are 
sometimes  represented  as  evil  acts  and  sometimes  as  benign. 
The  ambivalence  of  these  acts  depends  upon  the  imagined 
value  of  the  mother  herself,  in  expelling  the  child  from  her 
womb  in  birth  and  in  receiving  her  child  back  into  her  womb 
in  rebirth.  The  dual  character  of  the  mother  is  expressed  in 
the  Bible,  as  was  commonly  recognized  in  early  Biblical  exe- 
gesis, in  the  contrasting  figures  of  Eve  and  Mary. 

THE  MYSTIC  PROCESSION 

There  remains  to  be  considered  in  connection  with  the 
interpretation  of  the  character  of  Beatrice  the  part  that  she 
plays  in  the  Mystic  Procession,  described  in  the  closing 
cantos  of  Purgatorio.  The  pageant  of  the  Mystic  Procession 
is  generally  supposed  to  represent  the  history  of  the  Church 
terminating  with  the  transference  of  the  Papal  See  to  Avignon 
in  1309;  and  the  parallels,  indeed,  between  the  pageant  and 
the  history  of  the  Church  lend  some  plausibility  to  this 
interpretation.  I  am  willing  to  grant,  therefore,  that  there  are 


BEATRICE  377 

allusions  to  the  history  of  the  Church  in  the  dumb-show  of 
the  pageant.  But  the  deeper  symbolism  of  the  pageant  is  the 
symbolism  of  rebirth. 

Let  us  assume  for  the  moment,  however,  that  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  pageant  as  simply  a  representation  of  the 
history  of  the  Church  is  correct.  To  a  degree  that  certainly 
demands  further  explanation,  this  history  of  the  Church  is 
represented  in  terms  of  the  sexual  life.  The  harlot  and  the 
giant  embracing  in  the  car  and  the  giant  dragging  away  the 
car  with  the  harlot  in  it,  the  closing  scene  of  the  pageant, 
make  the  sex  symbolism  quite  obvious;  but  this  symbolism 
has  indeed  been  present  in  almost  every  detail  of  the  pageant. 
It  is  certainly  obvious  in  the  incident  of  the  dragon  issuing 
from  a  hole  in  the  earth  between  the  two  wheels  of  the  car 
and  piercing  the  floor  of  the  car  with  his  tail.  The  car,  as  the 
symbol  of  the  Church,  is  the  symbol  of  the  divine  mother, 
who  is  thus  represented,  as  in  all  myths  of  rebirth,  as  being 
prostituted. 

Now  the  reason  that  the  history  of  the  Church,  in  so  far 
as  it  is  represented  in  the  pageant,  is  represented  in  terms  of 
the  sexual  life,  is  simply  that  the  sexual  life  is  the  form  under 
which  all  existence  may  be  symbolized.  Whatever  is  is  first 
created,  and  then,  by  the  fact  of  existing  in  time,  becomes 
what  it  was  not  at  first.  There  is  first  the  birth  and  then  the 

"change 
Into  something  new  and  strange." 

This  change  may  be  expressed,  as  in  the  language  of  the 
philosophers,  in  the  problem  of  becoming,  or,  as  in  the 
language  of  myth  and  religion,  in  the  theme  of  rebirth.  Thus 
the  fundamental  distinction  between  being  and  becoming  is 
dramatized  in  the  sexual  life  conceived  as  the  means  by 
which,  first,  the  birth  of  the  individual  and,  second,  his 
rebirth,  or  becoming  new,  may  be  accomplished. 

Fundamentally,  therefore,  the  Mystic  Procession  is  a 
representation  of  the  history  of  the  universe.  If  the  universe 
may  be  considered  to  have  a  life,  the  story  of  its  life  is  the 
story  of  its  origin,  or  birth,  and  of  its  development,  or  rebirth. 


378      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

And  the  history  of  the  universe  as  a  whole  is  identical  with 
the  history  of  every  part  of  the  universe,  whether  the  part  be 
an  institution,  like  the  Church,  or  an  individual.  In  the 
divine  drama  of  the  universe  which  God  imagines,  there  is 
just  one  plot,  the  plot  of  birth  and  rebirth,  a  drama  in  which 
the  dramatis  personae  are  three,  the  paternal  principle,  the 
maternal  principle,  and  the  filial  principle.  This  plot  is  the 
universal  form  of  life.  And  therefore,  since  the  life  of  the 
universe  is  the  same  in  form  as  the  life  of  the  individual, 
Dante  sees  in  the  pageant  the  representation  of  his  own  life, 
which  is  typical  of  the  life  of  all  mankind. 

I  lack  the  space  to  treat  of  the  symbolism  of  the  Mystic 
Procession  in  detail;  I  will  confine  myself,  therefore,  to 
referring  to  a  few  of  the  indications  of  its  symbolism  of 
rebirth.  The  car,  as  commonly  in  ancient  myth  and  legend, 
represents  the  mother,  and  as  Beatrice  appears  in  the  car, 
she  and  the  mother  are  identified.  Any  such  identification  of 
contained  with  container  is,  indeed,  the  essence  of 
synecdoche.  Now  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  for  the 
symbolism  to  note  that  after  Beatrice  has  left  the  car,  the 
harlot  appears  in  it.  The  harlot  is  likewise,  therefore,  to  be 
identified  with  the  mother;  and  Beatrice  and  the  harlot 
together  symbolize  the  mother  in  her  dual  aspect.  The  two 
aspects  of  the  mother,  as  we  have  already  noted,  are,  first, 
the  receiving  of  the  child  into  the  womb,  as  in  union  and 
pregnancy,  and,  second,  the  expelling  of  the  child  from  the 
womb,  as  in  the  act  of  birth.  Either  aspect  appears  in  myth 
and  legend  as  ambivalent  for  good  or  for  evil. 

Just  as  one  of  the  two  aspects  of  the  motherhood  of 
Beatrice  is  represented  by  the  harlot,  so  one  of  the  two  aspects 
of  motherhood  as  symbolized  by  the  car  is  represented  by  the 
tree  to  which  the  griffon  draws  and  attaches  the  car. 

The  grifi^on  represents,  as  commonly  in  Christian  legend, 
Christ.  And  in  the  griffon,  since  Christ  represents  bot  God 
and  mankind,  Dante  sees  the  representation  of  himself  in 
one  aspect  of  his  dual  nature,  human  and  divine.  The  other 
aspect  of  the  dual  nature  of  Christ,  Dante,  or  mankind,  is 
represented  by  the  giant,  who,  after  the  disappearance  of  the 


BEATRICE  379 

griffon,  drags  the  car  away.  As  Beatrice  was  replaced  by  the 
harlot,  the  griffon  is  replaced  by  the  giant;  the  giant,  by  thus 
replacing  the  griffon,  is  indicated  as  an  aspect  of  the  griffon. 
The  giant,  accordingly,  also  represents  an  aspect  of  Dante 
himself;  and  when  it  is  prophesied  of  the  dvx,  who  is  Dante, 
that  he  shall  slay  the  giant,  a  partial  meaning  is  that  Dante 
shall  overcome  his  own  lower  nature.  The  dvx  represents  the 
reborn  or  regenerate  Dante,  just  as  the  giant  represents 
Dante  unregenerate. 

The  pole  of  the  car,  by  which  the  griffon  is  attached  to  the 
car,  is  phallic.  The  phallic  symbolism  of  the  pole  is  plainly 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  as  soon  as  the  pole  is  united  with 
the  tree,  a  recognized  mother  symbol,  the  tree,  which  has 
been  leafless,  puts  forth  blossoms.  The  griffon  is,  indeed,  the 
son  who  accomplishes  his  rebirth  by  the  act  of  incest,  since 
incest  is  the  means  of  returning  to  the  original  source  of  life. 
The  griffon  is  attached  to  the  car,  as  a  mother  symbol,  in 
birth,  and  to  the  tree,  as  a  mother  symbol,  in  rebirth.  But  the 
griffon,  like  Christ,  is  peculiar  in  possessing  his  human  and 
divine  nature  together  in  perfection.  He  is  at  once  his  human 
self  and  his  reborn  self.  This  peculiarity  is  implied  in  the 
epithets  animal  binato^  bijorme  fiera^  doppia  fiera. 

Repeating  the  rebirth  symbolism  of  the  details  of  the  pro- 
cession already  described  is  the  incident  of  the  two  descents 
of  the  eagle  into  the  car.  The  eagle  is  usually  interpreted  as  a 
symbol  of  the  empire,  and  the  descent  of  the  eagle  into  the 
car  as  a  symbol  of  the  union,  in  some  form  or  other,  of  the 
empire  and  the  church.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  first  descent 
of  the  eagle  into  the  car  symbolizes  the  union  of  God,  or  the 
father,  with  the  mother,  the  union  which  results  in  the  birth 
of  the  son.  The  second  descent  of  the  eagle  into  the  car 
symbolizes  the  union  of  the  son  with  the  mother.  The  son 
descends  in  the  guise  of  the  father,  and,  as  the  result  of  the 
incestuous  union,  is  reborn.  This  interpretation  of  the  descent 
of  the  eagle  as  rebirth  symbolism  is  confirmed  by  an  ancient 
Hebrew  belief  to  which  Frazer  refers  in  his  Folk-lore  in  the 
Old  Testament.  "Certainly,"  he  says,  "the  Hebrews  seem  to 
have  thought  that  eagles  renew  their  youth  by  moulting  their 


38o      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

feathers."  xAnd  in  a  note  to  this  sentence  he  adds:  "  Psalm  ciii. 
5,  'Thy  youth  is  renewed  like  the  eagle.'  The  commentators 
rightly  explain  the  belief  in  the  renewal  of  the  eagle's  youth 
by  the  moulting  of  its  feathers.  Compare  J.  Morgenstern, 
'On  Gilgames-Epic,  xi,  274-320,'  Zeitschriftfiir  Assyriologie^ 
xxix.  (191 5)  p.  294,  'Baethgen  quotes  a  tradition  from  Bar 
Hebraeus,  that  when  the  eagle  grows  old  he  casts  off  his 
feathers  and  clothes  himself  with  new  ones.  Rashi,  com- 
menting on  this  same  verse,  is  even  more  specific.  He  says 
that  from  year  to  year  the  eagle  casts  off  his  old  wings  and 
feathers  and  puts  on  new,  and  thereby  renews  his  youth 
constantly.'"  The  rebirth  symbolism  of  this  myth  of  the 
eagle  recalls  the  rebirth  symbolism  of  the  myth  of  the 
phoenix,  with  which,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Dante 
identifies  himself.  The  phoenix  rises  from  its  own  ashes;  the 
eagle  from  its  own  feathers.  The  incestuous  son,  accomplish- 
ing his  rebirth  like  the  phoenix  and  the  eagle,  is  to  be  under- 
stood, beneath  these  veils,  as  rising  from  his  own  semen. 

The  analogy  between  this  myth  of  the  rebirth  of  the  eagle 
and  the  descent  of  the  eagle  in  the  pageant  of  the  Mystic 
Procession  appears  in  the  fact  that  the  eagle  is  described  as 
leaving  the  car  covered  with  its  feathers,  whereupon  a  voice 
from  above  cries: 

O  navicella  mia,  com'  nial  sci  carca. 

It  is  the  protesting  voice  of  the  replaced  father. 

It  is  immediately  after  the  griffon  has  bound  the  pole  of 
the  car  to  the  tree  that  Dante  describes  himself  as  falling 
asleep;  and  it  is  in  this  sleep,  as  I  suggested  in  an  earlier 
chapter,  that  he  must  be  understood  to  unite  himself  with 
Beatrice.  This  union  is  not,  indeed,  expressed  in  such  plain 
terms  that  it  cannot  be  overlooked.  It  has  been  overlooked, 
apparently,  for  six  centuries.  But  the  indications  are  such 
that,  once  pointed  out,  they  can  scarcely  be  denied.  In  order 
to  show  how  Dante  indicates  his  union  with  Beatrice  in  the 
description  of  his  sleep,  let  us  revert  for  a  moment  to  the 
griffon's  act  of  tying  the  pole  of  the  car  to  the  mystic  tree. 
The  tree  is  a  mother  symbol,  so  used  indeed  in  the  story  of  the 


BEATRICE  381 

Garden  of  Eden  from  which  it  is  here  borrowed  by  Dante. 
And  the  pole,  as  I  suggested,  is  phallic.  The  union  of  the 
phallic  pole  and  the  maternal  tree,  which  before  was  leafless, 
results  in  the  tree's  putting  forth  blossoms.  The  grifi^on  him- 
self makes  the  symbolism  clear  in  the  words  which  he  utters 
as  he  is  about  to  unite  the  pole  and  the  tree: 

Si  si  conserva  il  seme  d'ognl  giusto. 

The  act  that  is  performed  by  Dante  with  Beatrice  in  his 
sleep  is  simply  an  imitation  of  the  act  of  the  griffon,  the 
symbol  of  Christ. 

Let  me  now  quote  the  passage  in  which  the  sleep  of  Dante 
is  described.  In  its  innuendo,  in  its  implying  everything  with 
the  air  of  saying  nothing  at  all,  this  passage,  Purg.  xxxii. 
61-87,  is  one  of  the  subtlest  in  the  Divina  Commedia: 

lo  non  lo  intesi,  ne  qui  non  si  canta  61 

L'  inno  che  quella  gente  allor  cantaro, 

Ne  la  nota  soffersi  tutta  quanta. 
S'  io  potessi  ritrar  come  assonnaro  64 

Gli  occhi  spietati,  udendo  di  Siringa, 

Gli  occhi  a  cui  piu  vegghiar  costo  si  caro; 
Come  pittor  che  con  esemplo  pinga  67 

Disegnerei  com'  io  m'  addormentai; 

Ma  qualvuol  sia  che  1'  assonnar  ben  finga. 
Pero  trascorro  a  quando  mi  svegliai,  70 

E  dico  ch'  un  splendor  ml  squarcio  il  velo 

Del  sonno,  ed  un  chiamar:  'Surgi,  che  fai?' 
Quale  a  veder  dei  fioretti  del  melo,  73 

Che  del  suo  pomo  gli  Angeli  fa  ghiotti, 

E  perpetue  nozze  fa  nel  cielo, 
Pietro  e  Giovanni  e  Jacopo  condotti  76 

E  vinti  ritornaro  alia  parola, 

Dalla  qual  furon  magglor  sonni  rotti, 
E  videro  scemata  loro  scuola,  79 

Cosi  di  Moise  come  d'  Elia, 

Ed  al  Maestro  suo  cangiata  stola; 
Tal  torna'  io,  e  vidi  quella  pia  82 

Sopra  me  starsi,  che  conducitrice 

Fu  de'  miei  passi  lungo  il  fiume  pria; 
E  tutto  in  dubbio  dissi:  *0v'  e  Beatrice?'  85 

Ond'  ella:  *Vedi  lei  sotto  la  fronda 

Nuova  sedere  in  sulla  sua  radice. 


382      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

I  wish  first  to  call  attention  to  the  manner  in  which  Dante 
says  that  he  would  depict  how  he  fell  asleep  "if  he  could 
portray  how  the  pitiless  eyes  sank  to  slumber  while  hearing  of 
Syrinx."  In  this  allusion  Dante  is  apparently  suggesting  some 
sort  of  parallel  between  the  way  the  "pitiless"  eyes  sank  to 
slumber  while  hearing  of  Syrinx  and  the  way  his  own  eyes 
sank  to  slumber  while  hearing  the  hymn  alluded  to  in  lines 
61-63.  Such,  however,  is  not  the  case;  Dante's  eyes  cannot 
be  likened  to  pitiless  eyes;  and  the  parallel  which  Dante 
seems  to  be  suggesting  is  a  blind  to  throw  the  reader  off  the 
track  of  his  real  meaning.  The  real  meaning,  indeed,  is  to  be 
found  in  following  up  the  allusion  to  the  "pitiless"  eyes. 

To  understand  the  allusion  to  the  pitiless  eyes  that  sank  to 
slumber  while  hearing  of  Syrinx,  we  must  refer  to  the  first 
book  of  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid;  the  pitiless  eyes  are  the 
eyes  of  Argus,  the  "all  seeing,"  and  the  story  that  Ovid  tells 
of  them  may  be  summarized  as  follows.  Jupiter  had  fallen  in 
love  with  lo,  and  in  order  to  conceal  his  amour  from  his 
jealous  wife  Juno,  who  had  followed  him  to  the  spot  where 
he  was  still  with  the  seduced  maiden,  he  changed  lo  into  a 
cow.  Juno,  who  was  not  completely  deceived,  demanded  the 
cow  as  a  gift  from  her  husband;  and  Jupiter,  still  in  the  hope 
of  diverting  her  suspicions,  gave  it  to  her.  Juno  straightway 
placed  the  cow  under  the  guard  of  the  hundred-eyed  Argus, 
so  that  Jupiter  might  not  again  gain  possession  of  it.  As  this 
situation  was  intolerable  to  the  amorous  Jupiter,  he  com- 
manded his  son  Mercury  to  kill  Argus  and  steal  lo  away. 
Mercury  accordingly,  in  the  guise  of  a  shepherd,  went  to 
where  Argus  was  guarding  lo,  and  by  playing  to  him  on  his 
pipe  and  telling  him  the  story  of  Syrinx,  caused  the  hundred 
eyes  of  Argus  at  last  to  close  in  slumber.  As  soon  as  Argus 
was  asleep.  Mercury  cut  off  his  head  and  thus  gained 
possession  of  the  metamorphosed  maiden.  Juno,  however, 
inconsolable  at  the  death  of  her  faithful  Argus,  transplanted 
his  hundred  eyes  into  the  tail  of  her  favorite  bird,  the 
peacock. 

Now  it  is  evident  from  this  story  that  the  way  the  pitiless 
eyes  of  Argus  sank  to  sleep  can  hardly  have  been  cited  by 


BEATRICE  383 

Dante  as  a  parallel  to  the  way  his  own  sank  to  sleep.  It  is 
true,  indeed,  that  both  Argus  and  Dante  sank  to  sleep  in 
hearing  music.  But  beyond  the  hearing  of  music  the  parallel 
ends;  for  Dante  is  a  lover  and  Argus  is  a  guard  who  keeps  the 
lover  away  from  his  mistress.  The  real  parallel,  therefore, 
which  Dante  must  be  considered  as  suggesting  in  his  allusion 
to  the  pitiless  eyes  of  Argus  is  to  some  Argus-like  eyes  that 
were  guarding  Beatrice  from  himself  as  her  lover. 

But  if  Dante  is  referring  to  some  Argus-like  eyes  that  are 
guarding  Beatrice  and  not  to  his  own,  where  can  these  Argus- 
like eyes  be  found?  For  the  answer  to  this  question,  let  us 
turn  to  Dante's  description  of  the  Mystic  Procession  as  he 
first  sees  it.  What  he  first  sees  is  candlesticks,  Purg.  xxix.  50, 
and  then  twenty-four  elders  crowned  with  fleur-de-lys. 
Candlesticks  and  fleur-de-lys  were  universally  recognized  as 
phallic  symbols.  Immediately  after  these  elders,  who  are 
singing,  lines  85-86: 

Benedetta  tue 
Nelle  figlie  d'Adamo, 

comes  the  triumphal  car  in  which  Beatrice  is  to  appear;  and 
surrounding  the  car,  as  a  guard,  quattro  animali.  Of  these 
animali  Dante  says,  lines  94-96: 

Ognuno  era  pennuto  di  sei  ali, 

Le  penne  piene  d'occhi;  e  gli  occhi  d'Argo, 

Se  fosser  vivi,  sarebber  cotali. 

Here  then,  as  guarding  the  triumphal  car  of  Beatrice,  the  car 
which  is  the  symbol  of  the  divine  mother  and  with  which 
Beatrice  is  to  be  identified  as  the  divine  mother,  are  expressly 
cited  the  Argus-like  eyes  referred  to  in  Dante's  description  of 
his  sleep.  And  these  guardian  eyes  are  expressly  described  as 
intervening  between  the  mother  symbol  of  the  car  and  the 
phallic  symbols  of  the  candlesticks  and  the  fleur-de-lys. 

Accordingly,  when  Dante  says  that  he  would  tell  how  he 
himself  fell  asleep  "if  he  could  portray  how  the  pitiless  eyes 
sank  to  slumber  while  hearing  of  Syrinx,"  he  must  be  under- 
stood to  refer  to  the  Argus-like  eyes  in  the  wings  of  the 
guardian  animali.  But  though  he  cannot  say  how  these  eyes 


384      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

were  closed  in  slumber,  he  can  at  least  say  how  they  were  put 
off  their  guard,  for  on  waking  he  is  informed,  as  he  tells  us, 
that  the  animals  with  the  Argus-like  eyes  had  already 
departed.  In  accomplishing,  therefore,  what  he  accomplished 
in  his  sleep  with  Beatrice,  he  had  been  freed  from  the  jealous 
restraint  of  the  eyes  that  would  have  guarded  her  from  him 
just  as  the  eyes  of  Argus  guarded  lo  from  Jupiter. 

The  duplicity  of  the  entire  passage  in  which  Dante  refers 
to  his  sleep  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  describes  it  in  the  very 
words  with  which  he  apparently  disclaims  the  ability  to 
describe  it.  But  there  are  still  more  precise  indications  of  the 
character  of  his  sleep  in  what  he  has  to  say  of  his  waking. 
He  is  wakened,  as  he  records,  Purg.  xxxii.  72,  by  a  voice 
crying  to  him:  Surgi,  che  fai?  In  the  abruptness  of  this 
imperative  and  in  the  accusatory  tone  of  the  che  fai?  there  is 
certainly  a  suggestion  that  Dante  has  been  doing  something 
in  his  sleep  that  has  not  been  completely  sanctioned;  the 
character  of  this  unsanctioned  act  is  to  be  guessed,  to  say  the 
least,  from  the  immediate  allusion,  Purg.  xxxii.  74-75,  to  the 

melo 
Che  del  suo  pomo  gll  Angeli  fa  ghiotti 
E  perpetue  nozze  fa  nel  cielo. 

The  eating  of  the  apple,  as  in  thestory  of  the  fall  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  is  unmistakable  symbolism  for  sexual  union,  and  this 
symbolism  is  made  absolutely  explicit  in  the  allusion  to  the 
perpetue  nozze.  By  these  allusions  to  the  apple  and  the  nozze 
on  awakening  and  by  the  incident,  immediately  before  the 
sleep,  of  the  griffon  tying  the  phallic  pole  to  the  maternal 
tree,  the  sleep  of  Dante  is  bounded  by  images  of  sexual  union 
which  serve  to  suggest  what  happened  during  the  sleep. 
Moreover,  there  is  a  wealth  of  detail  in  the  further  descrip- 
tion of  what  happened  after  the  waking  which  repeats  this 
same  symbolism  of  sexual  union. 

There  is  first  the  allusion  to  the  Transfiguration  of  Christ, 
as  recorded  in  Matthew  xvii;  in  this  account  of  the  Trans- 
figuration Christ  ascends  "into  a  high  mountain  apart"  and 
is  there  "overshadowed"  by  "a  bright  cloud;"  "and  behold 
a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  which  said,  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 


BEATRICE  385 

in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  The  incident  of  the  Trans- 
figuration had  a  profound  significance  for  Dante,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  use  which  he  makes  of  the  incident  in  the  Convivio 
in  defining  the  four  meanings  of  allegory.  Just  what  this 
significance  was  I  infer  from  the  fact  that  the  cloud,  as  well  as 
the  mountain,  was  a  widely  recognized  mother  symbol.* 
For  Christ  to  have  been  overshadowed  by  the  bright  cloud 
signified  for  Dante  that  Christ  was  enclosed  in  the  womb  of 
the  cloud  as  a  mother  symbol;  and  the  voice  from  the  cloud 
announcing  Christ  as  the  beloved  son  must  have  been  for 
Dante  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  mother  principle  of  the 
divine  Trinity.  In  the  incident  of  the  Transfiguration,  there- 
fore, Christ  must  be  understood,  in  the  language  of  medie^  al 
symbolism,  to  have  been  reunited  with  the  divine  mother. 
This  union  is,  indeed,  further  implied  in  the  fact  that  after 
the  union  Christ  was  transfigured,  or  changed,  as  in  rebirth. 
Thus  the  allusion  to  the  Transfiguration  is  a  further  impli- 
cation as  to  what  happened  in  Dante's  sleep. 

For  the  interpretation  of  the  sleep  of  Dante  as  symbolizing 
his  union  with  Beatrice  there  is  the  following  cryptographic 
confirmation  to  be  found  in  the  first  five  terzine  in  which  the 
sleep  is  referred  to.  This  passage  begins  with  line  61,  with  the 
allusion  to  the  music  during  which  Dante  falls  asleep,  and 
ends,  line  75,  with  the  allusion  to  the  nozze.  Consider  the 
following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine: 


61 

10 

64 

S    I 

67 

CO 

70 

p 

73 

QUAL 

Read:  qui  si  copola 

In  the  continuation  of  the  canto  still  more  images  appear 
which  confirm  the  interpretation  of  the  sleep  which  I  suggest. 
Beatrice  is  discovered 

sotto  la  frond  a 
Nuova  sedere  in  sulla  sua  radice. 
*See  Hirn,  The  Sacred  Shrine. 


386      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  radice  is  phallic,  and  the  fact  that  Beatrice  is  described 
as  seated  upon  the  radice  suggests  that  we  have  here  an 
analogy  with  an  ancient  Roman  marriage  custom,  referred 
to  in  the  article  on  "Phallism"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics:  "At  Roman  marriages  the  bride  was 
required  to  sit  upon  the  image  of  Priapus  (Augustine,  de  Civ. 
Dei,  vii.  24;  Lactantius,  Div.  Inst.  \.  20)." 

Dante  also  refers  to  Beatrice  as  she  who  m'avea  chiuso. 
This  declaration  that  Beatrice  had  enclosed  Dante  must 
certainly  not  be  overlooked.  She  is  described,  moreover,  as 
being  surrounded  by  the  nymphs  with  lights  in  their  hands; 
there  seems  to  be  here  an  allusion  to  the  virgins  in  the 
parable,  Matthew  xxv,  "which  took  their  lamps,  and  went 
forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom."  Thus  Beatrice  may  be  under- 
stood to  be  surrounded  by  the  virgins  like  a  bride. 

It  is  further  significant  of  the  symbolism  of  Dante's  sleep 
that  it  is  after  he  wakes  from  it  that  the  character  of  the 
mystic  pageant  itself  changes  from  images  of  innocence  to 
images  of  guilt,  as  in  the  fox  that  leaps  into  the  car,  the 
dragon  that  pierces  the  car  with  his  tail,  the  harlot  in  the  car 
embracing  the  giant.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  accusatory 
towt  oi  t\\Q.  chef ai?  addressed  to  Dante,  as  if  what  he  had  done 
in  his  sleep  had  not  been  completely  sanctioned.  The  sense  of 
guilt,  as  implied  in  these  images  following  the  union  of  Dante 
and  Beatrice,  is  thus  like  the  sense  of  guilt  that  followed  the 
union,  in  the  same  Garden  of  Eden,  of  Adam  and  Eve,  a 
union,  as  the  reader  will  recall,  which  I  have  already 
indicated  as  incestuous.  The  incestuous  union,  sanctioned  as 
it  may  be  in  myth  and  legend  as  the  means  of  rebirth,  is 
nevertheless  consistently  treated  as  guilty,  or  at  least  as 
incurring  the  jealous  hostility  of  the  father.  The  act  by  which 
mankind  is  to  be  reborn,  as  suggested  in  the  Biblical  account, 
is  therefore  ambivalent;  it  is  good,  in  that  it  is  the  means  by 
which  man  attains  the  kingdom  of  God— the  mother;  and  it  is 
evil  in  that  it  entails  a  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  the  father. 
The  following  verses  in  Genesis  may  be  read  in  the  light  of 
this  interpretation  of  incest  as  the  means  of  rebirth: 

"And  the  Lord  God  said.  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as 


BEATRICE  387 

one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil:  and  now,  lest  he  put  forth 
his  hand,  and  take  also  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  eat,  and  live 
forever: 

"Therefore  the  Lord  God  sent  him  forth  from  the  garden, 
to  till  the  ground  from  whence  he  was  taken." 

This  expulsion  of  the  guilty  i\dam  and  Eve  is  reproduced 
in  the  mystic  pageant  of  the  Divina  Commedia  by  the  flight 
of  the  giant,  in  whom  Dante,  as  a  result  of  his  guilty  act, 
now  sees  himself,  together  with  the  puttana,  in  whom  Dante 
now  sees  Beatrice,  the  mother  with  whom  the  act  has  been 
consummated.  But  though  the  act  is  evil,  in  the  sense  of 
incurring  the  anger  of  the  father,  it  is  the  highest  virtue,  in 
the  sense  that  it  is  the  means  by  which  Dante  is  to  be  reborn 
and  so  to  return  to  the  father.  The  result  of  the  union  is 
accordingly  indicated  in  the  prophecy  of  the  dxv;  this 
personage,  as  I  have  shown,  is  Dante  himself,  and  as  the  dxv, 
or  himself  reborn,  Dante  is  to  slay,  as  Beatrice  foretells, 

la  fuia 
Con  quel  gigante  che  con  lei  delinque. 

In  other  words,  he  is  to  slay  himself,  as  human  and  in- 
complete, and  his  own  mother,  as  human  and  incomplete, 
in  becoming,  in  her  and  through  her  and  with  her,  complete 
and  divine. 


THE  VARIETY  OF  MOTHER  SYMBOLS 

I  have  now  shown  that  in  her  various  manifestations  in  the 
Vita  Nuova  and  the  Divina  Commedia  Beatrice  represents 
Bella,  the  mother  of  Dante,  conceived  as  an  incarnation  of 
the  divine  mother.  It  is  in  this  ascription  of  divine  mother- 
hood to  a  human  mother  that  Dante  must  be  understood  to 
fulfill  the  mysterious  promise  that  he  makes  at  the  end  of  the 
Vita  Nuova^  in  what  is  apparently  his  earliest  allusion  to  the 
project  of  the  Divina  Commedia: 

Appresso  a  questo  sonetto  apparve  a  me  una  viirabil 
visione,  nella  quale  vidi  cose,  che  mi  fecero  proporre  di 
non  dir  piii  di  questa  benedetta,  infino  a  tanto  che  io 


388      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

non  potessi  piu  degnamente  trattare  di  lei.  E  di  venire 
a  cid  io  studio  quanta  posso,  si  com'  ella  sa  verace- 
mente.  Sicche,  se  piacere  sara  di  Colui,  per  cui  tutte  le 
cose  vivono,  che  la  mia  vita  per  alquanti  anni  duri, 
spero  di  dire  di  lei  quello  che  mai  non  fu  detto 
d'alcuna. 

The  mother  symboHsm  of  Beatrice  is  not,  however,  the 
only  mother  symboHsm  in  the  Divina  Commedia;  as  I  showed 
in  Chapter  VII,  Earth  is  a  mother  symbol,  Hell  is  a  mother 
symbol.  Purgatory  is  a  mother  symbol,  Paradise  is  a  mother 
symbol;  and  a  series  of  other  symbols  of  the  mother  is 
developed  throughout  the  entire  poem.  Thus  the  universe  of 
Dante's  experience  is  a  long  succession  of  symbols,  which  are 
to  be  understood  as  incarnations,  of  the  one  divine  mother 
who  exists  in  God.  Among  these  mother  symbols  in  the 
Divina  Commedia^  as  I  have  already  shown,  are  the  selva 
oscura;  the  lupa;  the  moon,  with  its  waxing  and  waning  as  in 
pregnancy  and  delivery;  the  sea,  with  the  analogous  swelling 
and  sinking  of  its  tides;  the  car  in  the  Mystic  Procession;  the 
tree  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise;  Giovanna,  Lia,  Rachel, 
Matelda,  Lucia;  the  maggior  valle  in  che  Vacqua  si  spanda; 
the  city  of  Florence,  as  the  birthplace  of  the  poet;  and  the 
mystic  rose.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  mother  symbols  in 
the  Divina  Commedia,  in  which,  indeed,  the  principal 
experiences  through  which  Dante  describes  himself  as  passing 
are  expressed  in  terms  of  mother  symbolism.  Let  me  conclude 
the  list,  therefore,  with  a  final  example  that  may  serve  as 
typical  of  the  working  of  Dante's  imagination,  dominated  as 
it  was  by  his  love  for  his  mother  and  his  desire  to  return  to 
her. 

In  Inf.  xix.  16-21,  in  describing  the  holes  in  which  the 
sinners  were  inserted  head  first,  Dante  likens  them  to  the 
openings  of  the  fonts  in  the  Baptistry  in  Florence,  and  de- 
scribes how  he  broke  one  of  these  fonts  in  order  to  save  a 
child  who  was  drowning  in  it: 

Non  mi  parean  meno  ampi  ne  maggiori,  16 

Che  quei  che  son  nel  mio  bel  San  Giovanni 
Fatti  per  loco  de'  battezzatori; 


BEATRICE  389 

L'  un  delli  quali,  ancor  non  e  molt'  anni,  19 

Rupp'  10  per  un  che  dentro  vi  annegava: 
E  questo  sia  suggel  ch'  ogni  uomo  sganni. 

The  last  line  of  the  passage  quoted  is  to  be  noticed  par- 
ticularly, for  it  implies  that  Dante  had  been  considered  guilty 
of  sacrilege  in  thus  breaking  one  of  the  sacred  containers  and 
delivering  a  child  from  it. 

Disinterested  as  the  act  had  been  as  the  only  means  of 
saving  a  life,  it  was  nevertheless  a  guilty  act,  in  that  it  was  a 
violation  of  a  symbol  of  the  divine  mother,  and  so  of  the 
divine  mother  herself.  The  degree  to  which  the  baptismal  font 
is  to  be  considered  as  a  mother  symbol  appears  from  the 
symbolism  of  baptism  as  a  reenactment  of  birth;  the 
baptismal  water  in  which  the  child  is  immersed  symbolizes 
the  amniotic  fluid  in  which  the  child  is  immersed  in  the 
womb,  and  the  font  which  holds  the  water  symbolizes  the 
womb  itself.  In  view,  therefore,  of  the  maternal  symbolism  of 
the  font,  Dante's  act  of  breaking  it  and  delivering  a  child 
from  it  is  only  to  be  understood  as  a  symbolized  act  of  incest; 
in  no  other  way,  indeed,  is  the  guilt  from  which  Dante  so 
curiously  seeks  to  exculpate  himself  to  be  accounted  for. 
This  guilt  is  exactly  analogous  to  the  guilt  of  Uzza, 
as  recorded  in  i  Chronicles  xiii.  9-10: 

"And  when  they  came  unto  the  threshing  floor  of  Chidon, 
Uzza  put  forth  his  hand  to  hold  the  ark;  for  the  oxen 
stumbled. 

"And  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  Uzza,  and 
he  smote  him,  because  he  put  his  hand  to  the  ark:  and  there 
he  died  before  God." 

The  ark,  for  the  Hebrews,  was  the  supreme  symbol  of  the 
divine  mother,  and  to  touch  it  even  to  save  it  was  an 
incestuous  profanation.  That  the  Baptistry  of  Florence,  like 
the  ark  of  the  Hebrews,  was  considered  by  Dante  as  a  mother 
symbol,  a  symbol  of  the  womb  which  he  had  no  right  to  open, 
appears  from  his  reference  to  it,  in  the  words  of  Cacciaguida, 
as  the  place  where  he  himself  was  baptized. 

Through  the  long  series  of  mother  symbols  contained  in  the 


390      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Divina  Commedia^  a  series  of  mother  symbols  which  are  to  be 
understood  as  incarnations  of  the  divine  mother,  Dante 
makes  his  journey  from  Earth  to  Heaven  as  by  a  series  of 
births  and  rebirths.  The  object  of  his  journey  is  to  return  to 
his  mother  as  the  source  of  Hfe  in  which  life  may  be  renewed 
and  fulfilled.  But  the  various  incarnations  of  the  divine 
mother  through  which  Dante  passes  are  all  imperfect;  they 
are  arranged,  indeed,  in  an  ascending  scale  of  perfection,  so 
that  Dante  passes  from  the  less  perfect  to  the  more  perfect, 
until,  in  the  penultimate  stage  of  his  journey,  he  attains  to 
his  own  human  but  now  transfigured  mother  Bella  in  the 
figure  of  Beatrice. 

Bella  as  Beatrice  is  the  supreme  incarnation  of  the  divine 
mother.  But  as  an  incarnation  she  is  not  the  divine  mother 
herself;  of  the  divine  reality  she  is  only  the  most  perfect 
appearance;  and  Dante  in  passing  as  he  does  from  Beatrice 
to  Mary  and  thence  to  God,  passes  from  appearance  to 
reality. 

In  the  return  to  God  with  which  the  vision  ends  God  is  to 
be  understood  as  a  divine  motherhood  as  well  as  a  divine 
fatherhood;  and  Dante  himself,  by  the  fact  of  coming  home, 
becomes  himself  the  divine  son.  The  home  coming  that  I  have 
attempted  to  describe  is  described  by  Dante  in  Convivio 
iv.  12: 

II  sommo  desiderio  di  clascuna  cosa,  e  prima  dalla 
Natura  dato,  e  lo  ritornare  al  suo  Principio.  E 
perocche  Iddio  e  Principio  delle  nostre  anime  e 
Fattore  di  quelle  simili  a  se,  siccom'  e  scritto: 
'Facciamo  1'  uomo  ad  immagine  e  simiglianza 
nostra';  essa  anima  massimamente  desidera  tornare 
a  quello.  E  sicconie  peregrine  che  va  per  una  via  per 
la  quale  mai  non  fu,  che  ogni  casa  che  da  lungi  vede, 
crede  che  sia  1'  albergo,  e  non  trovando  cio  essere, 
dirizza  la  credenza  all'  altra,  e  cosi  di  casa  in  casa 
tanto  che  all'  albergo  viene;  cosi  1'  anima  nostra, 
incontanente  che  nel  nuovo  e  mai  non  fatto 
cammino  di  questa  vita  entra,  dirizza  gli  occhi  al 
termine  del  suo  Sommo  Bene,  e  pero  qualunque 
cosa  vede,  che  paia  avere  in  se  alcun  bene,  crede  che 
sia    esso.    E    perche    la    sua   conoscenza    prima    e 


BEATRICE  391 

imperfetta,  per  non  essere  sperta  ne  dottrinata, 
piccioli  beni  le  paiono  grandi;  e  pero  da  quelli 
comincia  prima  a  desiderare.  Onde  vedemo  li 
parvoli  desiderare  massimamente  un  porno;  e  poi 
piu  oltre  procedendo,  desiderare  uno  uccellino;  e  poi 
pivi  oltre,  desiderare  bello  vestimento;  e  poi  il 
cavallo,  e  poi  una  donna:  e  poi  le  ricchezze  non 
grandi,  poi  grandi,  e  poi  grandissime.  E  questo 
incontra  perche  in  nulla  di  queste  cose  trova  quello 
che  va  cercando,  e  credelo  trovare  piii  oltre.  Per 
che  vedere  si  puote  che  l'  uno  desiderabile  sta 
dinanzi  all'  altro  agli  occhi  della  nostra  anima  per 
modo  quasi  piramidale,  che  '1  minimo  li  copre 
prima  tutti,  ed  e  quasi  punta  dell'  ultimo  desidera- 
bile, ch'  e  Dio,  quasi  base  di  tutti. 


Chapter  IX 
PROBLEMATIC  ASPECTS 


Chapter  IX 
PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS 


WITH  the  proof  that  the  Divina  Commedia  is  based  on 
the  symboHsm  of  an  anthropomorphic  universe,  and 
that  Beatrice  is  to  be  identified  with  Bella,  the  mother  of 
Dante,  conceived  as  an  incarnation  of  the  divine,  or  uni- 
versal, mother,  and  that  the  dxv  and  the  Veltro  are  to  be 
identified  with  Dante,  conceived  as  an  incarnation  of  the 
divine,  or  universal,  son,  I  have  completed  the  principal  part 
of  the  task  that  I  set  for  myself  in  the  present  volume.  This 
part  of  the  task  has  been  a  double  one:  it  has  been,  first,  to 
show  the  presence  of  cryptograms  in  the  Divina  Commedia^ 
and,  second,  to  show  the  bearing  of  these  cryptograms  on  the 
meaning  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  But  for  an  exhaustive 
analysis  of  the  Divina  Commedia  there  remain  to  be  con- 
sidered certain  aspects  of  the  cryptography  which  may  prove, 
indeed,  to  be  insoluble,  and  certain  aspects  of  the  meaning 
which  lie  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  volume  but  which 
I  wish  to  define  as  a  program  for  further  research. 


THE  LONG  ANAGRAMMATIC  ACROSTIC 

In  concluding  my  examination  of  the  cryptography  of 
Dante  I  will  show  four  groups  of  cryptograms:  first,  long 
anagrammatic  acrostics;  second,  cryptograms  in  passages 
not  Italian;  third,  cryptograms  on  groups  of  proper  names; 
and,  fourth,  acrostics  on  the  first  lines  of  consecutive  cantos. 
Examples  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  groups  have  been 
shown  in  previous  chapters. 

[395] 


396      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

The  long  anagrammatlc  acrostics,  which  I  will  now  show, 
cannot  be  proved  to  be  intentional,  and  they  are,  I  bel  eve, 
imperfectly  deciphered.  But  I  give  these  readings,  imperfect 
as  they  are,  for  the  reason  that  they  seem  to  indicate  that 
acrostics  of  which  they  are  approximate  readings  were 
actually  intended  by  Dante.  Indeed,  I  am  inclined  to  suspect 
that  the  Divina  Commedia  may  possibly  contain  a  continuous 
acrostic  extending  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  I  have  not 
deciphered  such  an  acrostic,  and  I  am  unable  to  do  so.  But 
I  have  deciphered  long  acrostics  which  seem  to  be  confirmable 
in  part  as  intended  by  Dante.  The  impression  that  1  get  from 
these  long  readings,  separated  as  they  are  from  each  other 
without  any  apparent  reason  for  being  separated,  is  that  they 
may  be  fragments  of  a  unit  which  I  am  unable  to  reconstruct. 

The  existence  of  these  long  anagrammatic  acrostics  seems 
to  be  indicated  by  the  repeated  appearance  of  certain  acrostic 
words,  such  as  peremas,  vel,  poema,  dante.  These  words 
appear  with  such  a  constancy  of  repetition  as  to  suggest  that 
they  should  be  connected  together  in  some  continuous 
reading.  The  frequent  possibility  of  reading  them  together 
suggests  that  some  such  continuous  reading  was  intended  by 
Dante.  But  in  view  of  the  nature  of  the  anagrammatic 
acrostic  form  I  regard  the  attempt  to  decipher  these  long 
acrostics  as  extremely  liable  to  error.  On  account,  therefore, 
of  the  liability  to  error,  I  have,  in  the  previous  chapters,  used 
only  a  few  of  the  long  acrostics  to  support  my  interpretation 
of  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  And  I  wish  to 
make  it  clear  that  my  general  thesis  does  not  depend  on  the 
long  readings  shown  in  this  chapter. 

The  method,  however,  by  which  these  long  anagrammatic 
acrostics  are  to  be  deciphered  is  precisely  the  same  method, 
applied  to  longer  passages  of  the  text,  that  was  used  in 
deciphering  the  short  anagrammatic  acrostics  shown  in  the 
preceding  chapters.  In  some  of  the  short  acrostics,  the  reader 
will  remember,  the  acrostic  letters  appear  in  the  text  in  the 
exact  sequence  in  which  they  are  to  be  read.  An  example  of 
such  a  sequence  is  the  nati  discovered  in  the  initials  of  the 
first  four  terzine  of  Inf.  i : 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  397 


I 

N 

4 

A 

7 

T 

10 

I 

But  in  other  of  the  short  acrostics  the  acrostic  letters  appear 
in  such  an  order  that  they  have  to  be  rearranged  to  reveal 
their  hidden  meaning.  An  example  of  an  acrostic  that  requires 
such  a  transposition  of  the  acrostic  letters  is  the  vela  pene 
discovered  in  the  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  the  first 
four  terzine  of  Par.  i: 


I 

LA 

4 

NE 

7 

PE 

10 

VE 

Such  a  transposition  of  letters  is  the  essential  characteristic 
of  the  anagram,  and  I  have  accordingly  called  the  acrostics 
in  which  such  a  transposition  of  letters  is  necessary  anagram- 
matic  acrostics.  All  the  long  acrostics  that  I  have  deciphered 
are  anagrammatic  in  the  sense  defined. 

In  order  to  clarify  the  relation  of  the  anagrammatic  to  the 
common  form  of  acrostic,  let  me  define,  first,  an  anagram, 
and,  second,  an  acrostic  as  generally  understood. 

An  anagram,  according  to  the  New  English  Dictionary,  is: 
"  I.  A  transposition  of  the  letters  of  a  word,  name,  or  phrase, 
whereby  a  new  word  or  phrase  is  formed."  An  anagram  may 
also  be:  "2.  loosely  ov  Jig.  A  transposition,  a  mutation."  The 
following  example  of  the  use  of  the  word  as  well  as  an  example 
of  an  anagram  is  quoted  by  the  New  English  Dictionary  from 
Howell:  "This  Gustavus  (whose  anagram  is  Augustus  was 
a  great  Captain.  "Another  example,  quoted  from  Hickeringell, 
is:  "The  true  anagram  oijesuita  is  Sevitia.''  It  is  of  interest 
to  note,  as  illustrating  the  motive  for  using  anagrams,  that 
the  two  anagrams  given  are  supposed  by  their  authors  to 
express  the  meaning  of  the  words  from  which  they  are  formed. 
This  understanding  of  an  anagram  as  expressing  the  meaning 
of  the  word  from  which  it  is  formed  appears  in  the  definition 
of  "anagrammatisme"  in  the  Remains,  1674,  of  W.  Camden. 


398      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

"Anagrammatisme"  is  there  defined  as  "a  dissolution  of  a 
name  truly  written  into  his  letters,  as  his  elements,  and  a  new 
connection  of  it  by  artificial  transposition,  without  addition, 
subtraction  or  change  of  any  letter,  into  different  words, 
making  some  perfect  sence  applyable  to  the  person  named." 

According  to  the  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica^  "  the  construc- 
tion of  anagrams  is  an  amusement  of  great  antiquity,  its 
invention  being  ascribed  without  authority  to  the  Jews, 
probably  because  the  later  Hebrew  writers,  particularly 
the  Kabbalists,  were  fond  of  it,  asserting  that  'secret 
mysteries  are  woven  in  the  numbers  of  letters.'  ...  A 
well-known  anagram  is  the  change  oi  Ave  Maria^  gratia  plena^ 
Dominus  tecum  into  Virgo  serena^  pia,  munda  et  immaculata. 
Among  others  are  the  answer  to  Pilate's  question,  '  ^uid  est 
Veritas?' — namely,  'Est  vir  qui  adest;'  and  the  transposition 
of '  Horatio  Nelson '  into  *  Honor  est  a  Nilo; '  and  of '  Flo:  ence 
Nightingale '  into  '  Flit  on,  cheering  angel'.  James  Fs  courtiers 
discovered  in  'James  Stuart'  'A  just  master,'  and  converted 
'Charles  James  Stuart'  into  'Claimes  Arthur's  seat.'" 

Let  us  now  examine  the  meaning  of  the  word  acrostic, 
which  is  derived  from  the  Greek  axpos,  extreme,  and  artxos, 
order,  row,  line,  verse.  Acrostic  is  defined  as  having  two 
principal  meanings.  According  to  the  first  definition,  an 
acrostic  is  a  composition,  usually  in  verse,  which  contains  a 
particular  kind  of  cryptogram  that  is  also  called  an  acrostic. 
According  to  the  second  definition,  the  word  designates  the 
cryptogram  itself.  It  is  in  this  sense  of  designating  a  par- 
ticular kind  of  cryptogram  that  I  will  use  the  word  in  the 
following  pages. 

In  the  sense  of  the  word,  then,  to  which  I  am  limiting 
myself,  an  acrostic  is  commonly  understood  as  a  cryptogram 
which  is  composed  of  the  initial  letters,  to  be  read  consecu- 
tively, of  the  lines  of  a  composition  usually  in  verse.  This 
common  understanding  of  an  acrostic  is  inadequate  in  one 
important  particular:  the  initial  letters  used  in  an  acrostic 
are  not  necessarily  the  initials  of  lines.  They  may  be  the 
initials  of  any  of  the  divisions  of  the  composition  in  which  the 
acrostic  occurs,  such  as  chapters,  cantos,  stanzas,  etc.  They 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  399 

may  also  be  the  initials  of  consecutive  words.  An  example  of 
an  acrostic  composed  of  the  initials  of  the  chapters  of  a  work 
is  to  be  found  in  the  Hypnerotomachia  Poliphili;  the  initials 
of  the  chapters  of  this  anonymous  work  spell:  poliam  frater 
FRANCiscus  coLUMNA  PERAMAViT.  This  acrostic  rcveals  the 
name  of  the  author  of  the  work  in  which  it  appears  and  the 
name  of  his  mistress.  An  acrostic  composed  of  the  initials  of 
consecutive  words  is  the  'IXGTS,  composed  of  the  initials 
of  the  words:  ^\r]aovs  XpLaros  Qeov  Ttos  ScorTyp,  "Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  the  Savior," 

We  shall  see,  in  the  course  of  the  chapter,  that  Dante 
composed  acrostics  analogous  to  these  two  examples. 

Now  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  anagram  the  precise  letters 
and  the  exact  number  of  letters  to  be  used  are  indicated  by 
the  word  or  phrase  which  is  to  undergo  the  anagrammatic 
transformation.  This  indication  of  the  letters  and  of  the 
number  of  letters  to  be  used  does  not,  however,  enable  the 
decipherer  to  be  certain  that  the  anagram  which  he  finds  is 
intended.  In  the  first  place,  a  decipherer  may  find  an  anagram 
in  a  word  or  phrase  where  no  anagram  was  intended  at  all. 
And  in  the  second  place,  he  may  find  an  anagram  which  is 
different  from  the  intended  one.  Take,  for  instance,  the  word 
ROMA,  for  which,  let  us  assume,  we  have  been  directed  to  find 
an  anagram.  There  are  several  anagrams  for  roma:  amor, 
MARC,  ARMO,  RAMO,  and  MORA;  and  nothing  in  the  nature  of 
the  anagram  itself  will  aid  us  in  determining  which  of  these 
variations  was  intended  and  which  was  not.  Though  the 
letters  themselves  are  indicated,  there  is  no  indication  as  to 
the  order  in  which  they  are  to  be  rearranged. 

As  contrasted  with  the  anagram,  therefore,  the  common 
form  of  acrostic,  which  is  to  be  read  consecutively  on  initials, 
indicates  the  cryptographic  letters  in  their  proper  order.  xAnd 
it  would  seem,  perhaps,  that  the  common  form  of  acrostic 
indicates  also  just  what  the  cryptographic  letters  are.  Such 
is  the  case,  however,  only  in  those  acrostics,  as  in  the 
alphabetical  psalms,  which  begin  at  the  beginning  of  a 
composition  and  end  at  the  end  of  it.  For  all  acrostics  that 
extend  through  less  than  the  entire  text,  the  extent  or  the 


400      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

acrostic,  and  so  the  letters  that  compose  it,  are  indicated 
merely  by  the  spelling  which  the  decipherer  is  able  to  discover. 

Now  the  anagrammatic  acrostic,  which  I  find  in  the  Divina 
Commedia,  differs  from  the  common  acrostic  in  two  im- 
portant particulars;  it  is  not  read  consecutively;  and,  using 
as  it  does  initial  and  contiguous  letters,  it  is  not  read 
exclusively  on  initials. 

So  far  as  I  know,  such  a  combination  of  the  acrostic  and 
anagrammatic  forms  is  not  described  in  the  histories  of 
cryptography.  But  the  fact  that  the  form  may  not  have 
been  described  by  the  historians  is  no  evidence  that  the 
anagrammatic  acrostic  is  not  a  valid  form  or  that  it  was 
not  used  by  Dante.  Indeed,  in  regard  to  the  precedents  for 
the  anagrammatic  acrostic,  I  find  them  plainly  enough  in  the 
irregular  clusters  of  significant  letters  which  the  makers  of 
cryptograms  have  frequently  placed  on  the  margins  of  the 
opening  lines  of  their  texts.  An  instance  of  such  an  irregular 
letter  cluster  has  already  been  noted  in  the  first  two  lines  of 
Purgatorio: 

1  PE 

2  OMA 

This  letter  cluster  is  acrostic  in  the  sense  that  the  letters 
which  compose  it  are  all  either  initials  or  contiguous  to 
initials.  And  since,  as  we  saw  in  an  earlier  chapter,  these 
letters  may  be  rearranged  to  read  poema,  the  cluster  is 
anagrammatic.  I  call  this  cluster  of  letters,  therefore,  an 
anagrammatic  acrostic;  and  the  method  that  I  have  used  in 
deciphering  it  is  identically  the  method  used  in  deciphering 
the  long  acrostics  to  be  shown  in  the  following  pages.  Like 
the  anagram  and  unlike  the  common  acrostic,  the  anagram- 
matic acrostic  does  not  indicate  the  order  in  which  the  signifi- 
cant letters  are  to  be  read.  And  unlike  both  the  anagram  and 
the  common  acrostic  that  is  coextensive  with  the  composition 
in  which  it  appears,  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  does  not,  of 
itself,  give  an  exact  indication  as  to  what  the  significant 
letters  are:  it  indicates  by  its  structure  merely  the  initials 
and  an  indeterminate  number  of  contiguous  letters. 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  401 

But  if  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  indicates  by  its  structure 
merely  the  initial  letters  and  an  indeterminate  number  of 
contiguous  letters,  how  can  these  contiguous  letters  be 
determined  at  all?  The  contiguous  letters  are  many:  how, 
then,  can  the  decipherer  know  which  of  them  to  choose? 
Is  he  not  free,  by  reason  of  the  indeterminate  indications  of 
the  anagrammatic  acrostic  form,  to  pick  out  at  fancy  the 
letters  that  spell  whatever  word  or  phrase  he  happens  to 
preconceive?  And  if  the  acrostic  is  not  necessarily  co- 
extensive with  the  text,  is  not  the  decipherer  free  to  fix  its 
limits  arbitrarily? 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  in  view  of  the  incomplete  guidance 
afforded  by  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  structure,  that  the 
probability  of  error  in  deciphering  is  great.  In  deciphering 
anagrams  of  any  kind  and  in  deciphering  any  acrostic  for 
which  definite  instructions  have  not  been  supplied  by  the 
author  to  take  the  initials  on  an  exact  number  of  specified 
lines,  the  reading,  however  it  may  be  confirmed,  cannot  be 
absolutely  proved  as  intentional. 

But  the  confirmations  may  be  strong,  and  the  decipherer 
is  by  no  means  free  to  wander  at  will.  Though  the  anagram- 
matic acrostic  form  fails  to  indicate  exactly  how  many  letters 
are  to  be  taken  or  exactly  what  all  of  them  are,  it  indicates 
enough  of  them  to  guide  the  decipherer  in  the  right  direction. 
Almost  invariably,  in  the  long  anagrammatic  acrostics 
which  I  shall  show  in  the  Divina  Commedia^  the  letters 
spelling  an  important  word  appear  in  such  proximity  as  to 
suggest  the  word  to  any  one  who  has  freed  himself  from  the 
convention — which  is,  after  all,  merely  a  convention — of 
reading  letters  in  the  usual  order  from  left  to  right.  Let 
me  show  again  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  on  the  first  six 
lines  of  Purgatorio: 

1  PE  4         E    CANT 

2  OMA  5         DO 

3  c  6        E 

Read:  poema.  ecco  dante 

The  marginal  letters  which  show  in  the  first  two  lines  are 


402      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

PE  and  OMA.  Though  these  letters  have  to  be  rearranged  to 
spell  POEMA  in  the  usual  order,  they  can  easily  be  read  as 
POEMA  in  the  order  in  which  they  occur.  To  a  practised 
decipherer  the  word  is  plainly  visible.  It  is  a  word,  moreover, 
which  appears  frequently  in  other  cryptograms.  It  makes 
obviously  good  sense  in  relation  to  the  Divina  Commedia. 
It  is  at  the  beginning  of  an  important  unit  of  text,  and,  as  is 
well  known  to  any  student  of  cryptography,  the  beginning  of 
a  unit  of  text  is  a  likely  place  in  which  to  find  a  cryptogram 
and  especially  a  signature.  But  poema  is  not  in  itself  a 
signature.  Where  is  the  signature  if  there  be  one?  Close  at 
hand  are  the  initials  of  lines  4  and  5,  e  and  d,  which  suggest 
DANTE,  and  the  rest  of  the  letters  of  the  name  appear,  also 
close  at  hand,  in  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  letters  of  line  4. 
But  this  reading,  so  far,  is  not  satisfactory.  C  intervenes 
between  the  letters  e  and  a  in  line  4,  and  another  c,  the  initial 
of  line  3,  intervenes  between  poema  and  the  broken  or  inter- 
rupted DANTE.  The  decipherer  of  an  anagrammatic  acrostic 
is  not  free  to  skip  about  among  non-contiguous  letters  or  to 
disregard  initials.  He  is  restricted  and  thereby  he  is  guided. 
The  two  c's  must  be  accounted  for:  and  the  presence,  in 
contiguous  letters,  of  the  means  to  account  for  them  is  an 
indication  that  the  whole  reading  is  intentional;  the  e  and 
the  o  are  in  plain  sight,  and  ecco  completes  the  reading  on 
the  two  terzine. 

Thus  the  process  by  which  the  decipherer  works  is 
systematic.  When  he  finds  a  collocation  of  letters  that  spells 
POEMA  and  the  name  of  the  author  of  the  poem  he  is  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  collocation  of  letters  was  intentionally 
arranged  by  the  author  to  spell  just  those  words.  The 
probability  that  the  author  intended  the  words  thus  de- 
ciphered is  greater  than  that  he  did  not  intend  them.  The 
guide,  then,  for  the  decipherer,  is  the  existence,  in  an 
appropriate  place,  of  letters  spelling  words  that  show  by 
position  and  meaning  a  consonance  with  the  text.  Following 
the  guide,  the  decipherer  chooses  the  letters  spelling  the 
consonant  words  and  rejects  the  remaining  letters  as 
irrelevant.  The  chief  difficulty  in  deciphering  is  to  find,  as  in 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  403 

Ecco  in  the  reading  above,  the  links  between  the  more 
important  cryptographic  words  which  seem  actually  to 
protrude  from  the  text.  And  it  is  in  this  dijfficulty  in  particular 
that  the  decipherer  is  most  likely  to  be  misled  by  his 
ingenuity  or  lack  of  it.  The  outstanding  words  are,  in  most  of 
the  instances  which  I  will  show,  plainly  indicated.  Their 
intention  is  confirmed  by  their  "high  visibility,"  by  the 
correspondence  of  their  meaning  to  the  sense  of  the  text  in 
which  they  are  embodied,  by  the  hints  which  Dante  gives 
of  a  hidden  meaning,  by  the  constant  recurrence  of  the  same 
letters  spelling  the  same  words;  that  is,  by  the  same  indi- 
cations of  intention  that  I  enumerated  in  Chapter  I. 

The  short  anagrammatic  acrostics  are  easier  to  decipher 
and  more  convincing  than  the  long  anagrammatic  acrostics. 
But  the  long  readings  shown  in  this  chapter  are  applications 
to  long  passages  of  precisely  the  same  method  that  was  applied 
to  the  short  passages.  In  many  instances  the  long  readings 
extend  through  passages  of  the  text  in  which  the  short 
readings  appear,  and  the  same  letters  are  used  to  spell  either 
the  same  or  different  words.  Examples  of  such  concurrent 
readings  have  already  been  shown  in  the  preceding  chapters. 
The  passage  which  we  have  just  examined  at  the  beginning 
of  Purgatorio  is  an  especially  good  example.  For  together 
with  the  reading:  poema.  ecco  dante,  on  the  first  six 
lines  are  the  two  readings:  peremas  and  spem,  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  first  four  terzine  (see  pp.  27-8).  Far  from  suggest- 
ing an  accidental  character  in  each  other,  these  concurrent 
readings  are  mutually  corroborative,  in  that  they  intensify 
the  sense. 

Dante's  choice  of  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  form  for 
the  majority  of  his  cryptograms,  both  short  and  long,  may 
have  been  determined,  first,  by  the  fact  that  it  allowed  him 
greater  freedom  than  an  acrostic  with  the  letters  in  strict 
sequence,  and,  second,  by  the  fact  that,  being  less  easy  to 
decipher,  it  offered  surer  means  of  concealment.  I  do  not 
believe  that  in  the  construction  of  his  cryptograms  Dante 
was  primarily  interested  in  having  them  deciphered.  The 
chief  philosophic  interest  of  cryptograms,  is,  as  I  explained  in 


404      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF   DANTE 

Chapter  I,  that  they  express,  as  latent  in  a  given  text,  the 
fundamental  difference  between  appearance  and  reality. 
In  the  universe  in  parvo  which  the  Divina  Commedia  may  well 
be  considered  to  be,  the  problem  of  appearance  and  reality 
had  to  have  a  place;  it  is  symbolized,  therefore,  by  the 
relation  of  the  manifest  meaning  of  the  text  to  the  crypto- 
grams which  it  contains.  These  cryptograms  may  also  have 
been  used  to  give  the  poem  a  form  derived  from  the  idea 
expressed,  just  as  the  form  of  the  universe  is  derived  from  the 
ideas  oi  its  creator.  The  difficulty,  or  even,  it  may  be,  the 
impossibility,  of  deciphering  the  cryptograms  in  the  text  may 
be  quite  irrelevant  to  the  purpose  for  which  they  were 
inserted.  But  the  difficulty,  or  even  the  impossibility,  of 
deciphering  the  anagrammatic  acrostics  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  in  no  wise  necessarily  implies  that  these  anagram- 
matic acrostics  do  not  exist.  The  evidence  for  their  existence, 
in  the  repetition  of  certain  cryptographic  forms  that  keep 
emerging  from  the  text,  like  islands  that  unite  with  each 
other  at  the  bottom  of  a  sea,  is  so  clear  and  so  consistent  that 
it  cannot  be  controverted. 

As  an  example  of  the  long  anagrammatic  acrostic  form  let 
us  examine  first  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  in  the  first  lines 
of  the  terzine.  Par.  xxxiii.  100-145.  As  I  showed  in  Chapter 
II,  page  30,  there  is  an  acrostic  on  the  last  line  of  this  canto 
and  the  first  lines  of  the  three  preceding  terzine.  This  acrostic 
reads:  l'amata.  The  long  acrostic  will  include  some  of  the 
letters  used  for  l'amata;  the  word  l'amata  will  not,  how- 
ever, appear  in  it. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  first  three  terzine: 


100 

a 

103 

PE 

106 

OMAI 

Notice  that  these  letters,  minus  the  ai,  spell  poema. 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  next  two  terzine: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  405 


109         NO 

112         MA 


133 

QU 

136 

T 

139 

M 

142 

A 

145 

L 

Notice  that  these  letters  spell  noma. 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  remaining  terzine: 

115   N 

117    E 
121     O 

124   O 

127    Q.U 
130    D 

Notice  that  these  letters,  minus  QUQu,  spell  dante  and 
l'omo. 

Read,  then,  on  all  the  letters  given,  beginning  line  100: 

POEMA  noma  qui  DANTE  QUA  l'oMO. 

Easy  to  see  in  this  reading  are  the  salient  words: 
POEMA,  NOMA,  DANTE,  and  l'omo.  The  difficulty,  to  which  I 
have  referred  in  discussing  in  general  the  salient  words  that 
appear  in  the  anagrammatic  acrostics,  is  the  difficulty  of 
connecting  these  words  into  the  continuous  reading  which 
they  seem  to  suggest.  I  have  solved  the  difficulty  here  by  the 
use  which  I  have  made  of  the  ququ.  But  this  solution  is  not 
the  only  solution  possible.  For  instance,  if  instead  of  the 
letters  qu  of  the  first  word  ^uella^  on  line  127,  the  letters 
QUEL  be  taken;  and  if,  instead  of  the  ma  of  i  12,  simply  the  m; 
and  if,  instead  of  simply  n  of  the  word  Nella  on  line  115,  the 
letters  ne;  the  reading  might  be  considered  as:  poema  noma 

QUI    DANTE.    QUEL    E    l'oMO. 

Or  a  variation  on  this  second  reading  might  be  made  by 
omitting  the  l  oi ^uella^  line  127,  and  the  e  oi Nella,  line  115: 

POEMA  NOMA  QUI  QUEL  OMO  DANTE 

These  variations  illustrate  the  difficulty  of  deciphering  the 
exact  form  of  the  anagrammatic  acrostic;  but  this  difficulty, 
however  great  it  may  be,  in  no  way  invalidates  the  readings 
as  an  approximation  to  the  reading  actually  intended  by 
Dante.  The  words  poema,  noma,  dante,  and  l'omo  appear  so 


4o6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

plainly  in  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  form,  and  they  so  nearly 
group  of  themselves  into  a  sentence,  and  this  sentence 
expresses  so  great  a  relevance  to  the  poem,  as  auto- 
biographical, that  I  find  it  difficult  to  doubt  that  Dante 
intended  some  approximation  to  the  anagrammatic  acrostic 
which  I  have  here  shown  as  actually  existing  in  the  text. 

The  cryptographic  interest  of  this  passage  is  not  yet 
exhausted.  For  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  all 
the  lines  from  line  133  to  the  end  of  the  canto: 


133 

QU 

140 

SE 

134 

PER 

141 

D 

13s 

PE 

142 

A 

136 

TALE  E 

143 

MA 

137 

VE 

144 

SI  C 

138 

L  I 

145 

L 

139 

MA  NGN  E 

Read:  peremas  qui  vel.  dante  si  cela  nel  poema 

The  sentence:  peremas  qui  vel,  is  frequently  repeated  in 
the  acrostic  readings,  as  is  also  the  idea  that  Dante  conceals 
himself  in  the  poem.  The  exact  repetition  of  the  first  sentence, 
and  the  repetition  of  the  ideas  expressed  in  both,  confirm  the 
intention  of  the  acrostic. 

The  last  ten  terzine  of /w/.  v  show  a  reading  on  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters  of  their  first  lines: 

115  POI 

118  MA 

121  E 

124  MA  SE 

127  NCI  LE 

Read:  peremas  qui.  mi  celo  nel  poema.  dante 

Manifest  on  lines  115-121  is  the  poema;  and  the  peremas 
on  lines  124  and  130  is  scarcely  disguised  by  the  intervening 
letters  of  127.  The  dante  at  the  end  is  unmistakable. 

Tn  Par.  viii  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the 
first  lines  of  the  terzine  from  line  112  to  the  end  of  the  canto: 


130 

per 

133 

QU 

136 

L 

139 

M  ENT 

142 

EC  AD 

PROBLEMATIC  ASPECTS 


407 


112 

115 
118 
121 
124 
127 
130 


V 

o 

E 

S 

PER 

L 

QUI 


133 

N 

136 

0 

139 

S 

142 

E 

145 

MA 

148 

0 

Read:  peremas  velo.  sono  qui 

Dante  says  in  this  reading  that  he  is  in  the  text.  But 
where? 

Consider  on  the  last  three  lines  the  following  marginal 
letters: 

146  TA 

147  E 

148  OND 

Read:  o  dante 

The  o  belongs  to  the  long  reading  which  is  given  above  and 
which  the  dante  signs.  The  complete  reading,  therefore,  may- 
be considered  as:  peremas  velo.  song  qui.  dante 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  first 
twenty-one  lines  oi  Par.  x: 


I 

GUA 

12 

TAN 

2 

CHE 

13 

VE 

3 

LO    P 

14 

LO 

4 

QUAN 

15 

PER    SATI 

5 

CON   TA 

16 

E 

6 

SE 

17 

M 

7 

LE 

18 

E    QU 

8 

MECO 

19 

E 

9 

DO 

20 

F 

10 

E  LI    CO 

21 

E 

II 

DI 

Read:  peremas  qui  velo.  ecco  che  dante  s'e  fatto  qui 

NEL  POEMA  l'eGUALE  CON  DIO 

This  reading  is  determined  by  the  salient  words.  Dante 
appears  as  a  unit  on  lines  10,  11,  and  12.  Velo  appears  on 


408      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

lines  13  and  I4;  peremas  on  lines  15,  16,  and  17.  The 
l'equale  qui  appears  clearly  on  the  regular  ten-line  frame 
of  the  first  four  terzine,  thus: 


I 

GUA 

4 

QU 

7 

le 

10 

E    LI 

Read:  l'eguale  qui 

This  refers  to  Dante's  identification  of  himself  with  Christ, 
t\\Q  fig/io  in  line  i.  For  the  interior  sequence  in  this  passage 
see  Chapter  III,  page  88. 

The  passage  in  which  the  longer  reading  is  found  is 
immediately  followed  by  a  terzina,  Par.  x.  22-24,  i^  which 
the  reader  is  expressly  directed  to  the  lines  preceding: 

Or  ti  riman,  lettor,  sopra  il  tuo  banco 
Dietro  pensando  a  cio  che  si  preliba, 
S'esser  vuoi  lieto  assai  prima  che  stance. 

These  words  may  well  be  taken  as  a  hint  of  the  crypto- 
graphic character  of  the  passage.  An  acrostic  appears  on  these 
three  lines,  thus: 


22 

OR 

23 

DI 

24 

S 

SORDI 

Read; 

May  Dante,  in  the  acrostic  on  these  lines  which  direct  the 
reader  to  reconsider  what  he  has  been  reading,  have  in  mind 
the  Biblical  words:  "Having  ears,  hear  ye  not?" 

On  the  first  lines  of  the  first  five  terzine  of  Purg.  xxxii 
consider  the  following  marginal  letters: 


I 

TAN 

4 

ED    E 

7 

QU 

10 

E    LA 

13 

MA    PCI    C 

Read: 

POEMA    QUI    CELA    DANTE 

PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  409 

The  letters  of  dante  are  clustered  on  the  first  two  lines, 
the  letters  of  poema  on  the  last  two. 

The  initials  of  the  first  six  lines  are:  t,  a,  c,  e,  d,  a. 

Read:  tace  da 

This  corresponds  to  the  meaning  of  the  text.  Dante  is  look- 
ing so  fixedly  that  every  sense  but  sight  is  extinct. 

Consider  in  Purg.  xxxiii  the  following  marginal  letters  on 
the  first  lines  of  all  the  terzine  from  line  100  to  the  end  of  the 
canto: 

100       VE  124        E 

103       E  127       MA 

106  Q.UAN  130  CO 

109  LE  SET  133  C 

112  DINAN  136  S  I 

115  O  L  139  MA 

118  PER  142  I 

121  LA  BEL  145  P 

Read:  peremas  qui  vel.  dante  si  cela  con  bella  in 

POEMA 

This  passage  contains  two  concurrent  readings,  the  acros- 
tics: pig  rimasi  and  puri  rii,  which  have  been  shown  in 
Chapter  II,  page  29. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  lines  of 
the  five  terzine,  Purg.  xxvii.  100-114: 

108  lei  lo 

109  E 

no  CHE 

111  Q.UAN 

112  LE   TEN 

113  E 

114  V 


100 

SA 

lOI 

C 

102 

LE  B 

103 

PER  PIAC 

104 

MA  M 

105 

DA 

106 

E 

107 

CO 

Read: 

PEREMAS  QUI  VE 

POEMA 

4IO      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

This  acrostic  confirms  the  idea  that  Lia  is  a  dream  form  of 
the  mother. 

In  Par.  iii  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the 
first  lines  of  the  first  twenty-seven  terzine: 


I 

QUEL 

4 

ED    I 

7 

MA 

10 

QUA  LI 

13 

T 

i6 

TALI    1 

19 

S 

22 

E    N 

25 

N 

28 

MA 

31 

PER 

34 

E 

37 

0    BE 

40 

G 

Read: 

PEREMAS     q 

BELLA    E 

l'amata  n: 

43 

LA 

46 

I 

49 

MA 

52 

LI    N 

55 

E 

58 

0 

61 

P    E 

64 

MA 

67 

C 

70 

F 

73 

S    E 

76 

C 

79 

A 

;     SIGNIFICA 

QUI     COME 


The  reading  which  I  have  here  deciphered  is  determined 
in  its  essential  words  by  the  initial  letters.  Poema,  lines  55-64, 
is  unmistakable;  and  the  peremas,  lines  19-31,  disguised 
merely  by  the  intervening  n,  line  25,  is  almost  equally 
unmistakable.  All  the  letters  of  dante  except  the  d  occur  as 
initials,  and  the  significa  is  suggested  by  three  initials, 
s,  G,  and  F. 

In  the  text  of  the  passage  in  which  this  acrostic  naming 
BELLA  appears  the  adjective  belia  is  twice  used.  The  first 
instance  is  in  the  second  line.  The  marginal  words  of  the  first 
six  lines  seem  to  suggest  that  bella  has  a  reference  to  Bella: 

QUEL    SOL 
DI    BELLA 
PROVANDO 
ED    10 
'  ME    STESSO 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  411 

The  sun  and  edio  are  both  symbols  of  Dante.  In  the  words: 

QUEL    SOL    DI    BELLA,    PROVANDO    EDIO    ME    STESSO,    he    may 

accordingly  be  considered  as  referring  to  himself  as  belonging 

to    BELLA. 

The  second  bella  occurs  in  the  line.  Par.  iii.  48: 

Non  mi  ti  celera  I'esser  piu  bella. 

These  words  are  so  composed  as  to  be  capable  of  expressing 
by  double  entente:  "Being  Bella  will  no  longer  conceal  me 
from  thee." 

Words  in  the  text  that  may  be  considered  as  cryptographic 
hints  are  pastille^  line  13,  meaning  "marginal  notes,"  and 
levai  lo  capo^  line  6.  Capo  is  a  word  that  suggests  a  crypto- 
graphic device. 

Inf.  XX.  100-114,  reads: 

Ed  io:  'Maestro,  i  tuoi  raglonamenti  100 

Mi  son  si  certi,  e  prendon  si  mia  fede, 

Che  gli  altri  mi  sarian  carboni  spenti. 
Ma  dimmi  della  gente  che  procede,  103 

Se  tu  ne  vedi  alcun  degno  di  nota; 

Che  solo  a  cio  la  mia  mente  rifiede.' 
Allor  mi  disse:  'Quel  che  dalla  gota  106 

Porge  la  barba  in  sulle  spalle  brune, 

Fu,  quando  Grecia  fu  di  maschi  vota 
Si  che  appena  rimaser  per  le  cune,  109 

Augure,  e  diede  il  punto  con  Calcanta 

In  Aulide  a  tagliar  la  prima  fune. 
Euripilo  ebbe  nome,  e  cosi  il  canta  112 

L'  alta  mia  Tragedia  in  alcun  loco: 

Ben  lo  sai  tu,  che  la  sai  tutta  quanta. 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  five  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


100 

ED 

103 

M 

106 

A 

109 

SI 

112 

EURI 

Taking  the  u   of  euripilo   for  its  equivalent  v,  read; 

MADRE,   VI    SEI. 


412      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

And  exactly  as  this  acrostic  indicates,  the  name  of  Dante's 
mother  appears  in  an  acrostic  in  the  same  passage.  Consider 
the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  three  lines  of  the  last 
terzina: 

112  E 

113  L  AL 

114  B 

Read:  bella 

The  terzina  immediately  preceding  the  foregoing  passage, 
Inf.  XX.  97-99,  reads: 

Pero  t'  assenno,  che  se  tu  mai  odi 
Originar  la  mia  terra  altrimenti, 
La  verita  nulla  menzogna  frodi.' 

The  marginal  letters  of  the  first  line  of  this  terzina  and  of 
the  first  lines  of  the  next  four  terzine  are: 


97 

PER 

100 

E 

103 

M 

106 

A 

lOQ 

s 

Read:  peremas 

This  passage  and  neighboring  lines  contain  several  words 
that  are  hints  of  cryptograms,  augure^  no;  nome^  112; 
magiche  jrode  ^  117. 

The  words  in  the  last  terzina,  11 2-1 13: 

cosi  il  canta 
L'alta  mia  Tragedia  in  alcun  loco, 

taken  in  connection  with  the  acrostics  indicating  the  mother, 
suggest  that  Dante  was  aware  of  the  mother  symbolism  of 
the  jEneid,  the  tragedy  to  which  Virgil  is  referring  in  the  text. 
That  Dante  has  the  same  symbolism  for  his  Commedia 
appears  from  the  acrostic  on  the  opening  lines  of  the  next 
canto.  The  first  four  terzine,  Inf.  xxi.  1-12,  are: 

Cosi  di  ponte  in  ponte,  altro  parlando 
Che  la  mia  commedia  cantar  non  cura, 
Venimmo,  e  tenevamo  il  colmo,  quando 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  413 

Ristemmo  per  veder  1'  altra  fessura  4 

Di  Malebolge,  e  gli  altri  pianti  vani; 

E  vidila  mirabilmente  oscura. 
Quale  neir  Arzana  de'  Viniziani  7 

Bolle  r  inverno  la  tenace  pece 

A  rimpalmar  li  legni  lor  non  sani, 
Che  navicar  non  ponno,  e  in  quella  vece       10 

Chi  fa  suo  legno  nuovo,  e  chi  ristoppa 

Le  coste  a  quel  che  piu  viaggi  fece; 

Consider  on  all  the  twelve  lines  of  this  passage  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters: 


I 

CO 

2 

c 

3 

VENI 

4 

RIST 

5 

DI 

6 

E 

7 

QUALE 

8 

BOLLE 

9 

A 

10 

CHE    NA 

II 

C 

12 

LE 

Read:  ecco  che  dante  si  rivela  qui  con  bella 

Compare  this  acrostic  containing  the  name  of  bella  in 
connection  with  the  mention  of  the  Commedia  with  the 
acrostic  containing  the  name  of  bella  in  connection  with 
the  passage  in  which  Virgil  refers  to  his  Tragedia,  Inf.  xx.  113. 

In  the  present  passage  Dante  declares  that  Virgil  and  he 
were  speaking  of  things 

Che  la  mia  commedia  cantar  non  cura. 

It  may  therefore  be  inferred  from  the  acrostic  that  the  subject 
of  their  conversation  was  the  relation  of  Dante  with  his 
mother  Bella.  This  relation  is,  indeed,  the  hidden  subject  of 
the  entire  Commedia. 

The  following  passage,  Par.  xxiii.  85-90,  consists  of  two 
terzine: 

O  benigna  virtu  che  si  gl'  imprenti,  85 

Su  t'  esaltasti  per  largirmi  loco 

Agli  occhi  li,  che  non  eran  possenti. 
II  nome  del  bel  fior  ch'  io  sempre  invoco       88 

E  mane  e  sera,  tutto  mi  ristrinse 

L'  animo  ad  avvisar  lo  maggior  foco. 


414      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  lines  of 
these  two  terzine: 


85 

0  BE 

86 

SU  T 

87 

A 

88 

IL 

89 

E 

90 

L 

Read: 

0  BELLA  SEI  TU 

For  the  interior  sequence  in  this  passage  and  for  the 
significance  of  //  nome  del  bel fior  see  page  328. 

The  following  four  terzine,  Inj.  vi.  64-75,  comprise  the 
prophecy  which  Ciacco  makes  about  Florence: 

Ed  egli  a  me:  'Dopo  lunga  tenzone  64 

Verranno  al  sangue,  e  la  parte  selvaggla 
Caccera  1'  altra  con  molta  ofFensione. 

Poi  appresso  convien  che  questa  caggia  67 

Infra  tre  soli,  e  che  1'  altra  sormonti 
Con  la  forza  di  tal  che  teste  piaggia. 

Alte  terra,  lungo  tempo  le  fronti,  70 

Tenendo  1'  altra  sotto  gravi  pesi, 
Come  che  di  cio  pianga,  e  che  ne  adonti. 

Giusti  son  due,  ma  non  vi  sono  intesi:  73 

Superbia,  invidia  ed  avarizia  sono 
Le  tre  faville  che  hanno  i  cori  accesi.' 

The  reference,  line  73,  to  the  "two  just  ones"  is  generally 
supposed  to  be  to  Dante  himself  and  his  friend  Guido 
Cavalcanti.  No  proof,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  been  given  for 
these  identifications.  There  is  confirmation,  however,  in  the 
anagrammatic  acrostics  which  the  passage  contains. 

Observe,  first,  that  the  prophetic  words  of  Ciacco  begin, 
line  64,  after  the  introductory  Ed  e^li  a  me.  Let  us,  therefore, 
consider,  as  a  preliminary,  the  following  marginal  letters  of 
the  first  line  of  the  prophecy  itself,  which  begins  with  Dopo 
lunga  tenzone^  and  of  the  first  lines  of  the  remaining  terzine  in 
which  the  prophecy  appears: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  415 

64  DO 

67  POI 

70  ALTE 

73  GIU 

Read: il  poeta  guido 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  complete  text  of  the  four  terzine 
and  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  their  first  lines: 

64  ED   E 

67  POI    A 

70  ALTE 

73  GIUSTI    SON    DUE    MA    NO 

Read:  il  poeta  vi  noma  essi:  guido  e  dante 

In  medieval  Italian  the  letter  u  was  the  same  as  the  letter 
V.  I  have  here  taken,  therefore,  the  u  oi  due  for  its  equivalent 
V,  and  have  used  it  as  the  equivalent  of  its  spelled  form  vi. 

The  acrostic  just  deciphered  is  confirmed  by  another 
acrostic  extending  through  the  remainder  of  the  same  canto. 
Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  terzine,  Inf.  vi.  76-115, 
the  following  marginal  letters: 

76   QUI 
79   FA 
82   D 

85  E 

88  MA 

91  GL 

94  E  I 

Read:  peremas  qui  vel.  feci  qui  guido  e  dante 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  first  nine  terzine  oi  Par.  xi 
the  following  marginal  letters: 

I        o  I  16        E 

4       c  19       c 

7  E  22  T 

10         QUA  25         O 

13  P 

Read:  ecco  qui  poeta 


97 

CI 

100 

s 

103 

PER 

106 

ED  E 

109 

TU 

112 

noi 

115 

QUIV 

4i6      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
the  last  nine  terzine  oi  Inf.  xxxiii: 

133       E  148       M 

136         T  151         A 

139       10  154      C 

142  N  157  ED 

145      c 
Read:  eccomi  dante 

The  following  acrostic  appears  in  Dante's  description  of 
the  punishment  of  the  peccator  carnally  Inf.  v.  34-54.  Con- 
sider the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of  the 
terzine: 

34  QUA 
37  INT 
40         E 

43  Dl 

46  EC 

49  CM 

52  L 

Read:  mi  celo  qui.  dante 

Following  are  two  examples  of  acrostics  reading  peremas, 
in  which  the  letters  of  the  word  are  very  plain  but  in  which 
the  word  non  intrudes.  It  may  be  that  the  two  words  are 
fragments  of  a  longer  reading  (see  p.  410).  The  first  acros- 
tic is  in  Par.  iii.  19-33: 

Subito,  si  com'  io  di  lor  m'  accorsi,  19 

Quelle  stimando  specchiati  sembianti, 

Per  veder  di  cui  fosser,  gli  occhi  torsi; 
E  nulla  vidi,  e  ritorsili  avanti  22 

Dritti  nel  lume  della  dolce  guida, 

Che  sorridendo  ardea  negli  occhi  santi. 
'Non  ti  maravigliar  perch'  io  sorrida,'  25 

Mi  disse,  'appresso  il  tuo  pueril  coto, 

Poi  sopra  il  vero  ancor  Io  pid  non  fida, 
Ma  ti  rivolve,  come  suole,  a  voto.  28 

Vere  sustanzie  son  ci6  che  tu  vedi, 

Qui  rilegate  per  manco  di  voto. 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  417 

Pero  paria  con  esse,  ed  odi,  e  credi;  31 

Chd  la  verace  luce  che  le  appaga 
Da  se  non  lascia  lor  torcer  li  piedi.' 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  these  five  terzine  the  follow- 
ing marginal  letters: 


19 

S 

22 

E 

25 

NON 

28 

MA 

31 

PER 

Read:  peremas  [non] 

The  following  passage  is  Par.  xxvi.  43-57: 

Sternilmi  tu  ancora,  cominciando  43 

L'  alto  preconio,  che  grida  V  arcane 

Di  qui  laggiu  sopra  ogni  altro  bando.' 
Ed  io  udi':   'Per  intelletto  umano,  46 

E  per  autoritadi  a  lui  concorde, 

De'  tuoi  amori  a  Dio  guarda  il  soprano. 
Ma  di'  ancor,  se  tu  senti  altre  corde  49 

Tirarti  verso  lui,  si  che  tu  suone 

Con  quanti  denti  questo  amor  ti  morde.' 
Non  fu  latente  la  santa  intenzione  52 

Deir  aquila  di  Cristo,  anzi  m'  accorsi 

Dove  volea  menar  mia  professione. 
Pero  ricominciai:   'Tutti  quel  morsi,  55 

Che  posson  far  lo  cor  volger  a  Dio, 

Alia  mia  caritate  son  concorsi; 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  five  terzine  the  following 
marginal  letters: 


43 

s 

46 

E 

49 

MA 

52 

NON 

55 

PER 

Read:  peremas  [non] 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  lines, 
Inf.  xxxiii.  139-157: 


4i8      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


139 

I 

140 

c 

141 

E 

142 

NE 

143 

L 

144 

NO 

145 

C 

146 

N 

147 

CHE 

148 

MA  DIS 

149 

A 

150 

E 

151 

A 

152 

D  0 

153 

P 

154 

C 

155 

T 

156 

I 

157 

E 

Read:  ecco  che  dante  si  indica  nel  poema 
All  the  letters  of  dante  appear  as  initials. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  all  the  lines  of 
the  five  terzine,  Purg.  xvi.  37-51 : 


37 

A 

45 

E 

38 

CHE 

46 

L 

39 

E  V 

47 

D 

40 

E  SE 

48 

A 

41 

TA 

49 

PE 

42 

PER 

M 

50 

CO 

43 

NO 

51 

C 

44 

MA 

:  PEREMAS.  ecco  CHE 

POEMA  VELA 

DANTE 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  first  seven  terzine  oi  Purg.  viii: 


I 

E 

4 

E 

7 

QUAND  I 

10 

ELL 

13 

T 

16 

E 

19 

AGU 

:  DANTE  F.  OUI  l'eGUALE 

PROBLEMATIC  ASPECTS  419 

The  reference  of  the  cryptogram  may  be  to  lo  nuovo  pere- 
grin d'amore^  Hne  4,  which  is  exactly  what  Dante  represents 
himself  to  be  throughout  the  Divina  Commedia.  For  the 
cryptogram  on  the  Latin  phrase:  te  lucis  ante,  see  pp.  97-8. 
The  seventh  terzina,  19-21,  is  a  distinct  hint  to  penetrate 
the  veil,  and  the  cryptogram  on  this  terzina  is  a  further 
hint  to  look  for  a  hidden  meaning.  Consider  on  the  terzina 
the  following  marginal  letters: 

19  A 

20  c 

21  CER 

Read: cerca 

Consider  on  the  first  lines  of  the  next  four  terzine  the 
following  marginal  letters: 

22  I 
25  E 
28       V 

Read:  veli 

This  repeats  the  idea  of  velo    ....    sottiky  line  20. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  lines  of 
the  terzine,  Purg.  xxx.  118-145: 

118       M  133       NE 

121       A  136       T 

124    SI  139    PER 

127    Q.U  142    A 

130    E  145    D 

Read:  peremas  qui  dante 

Notice  how  clearly  dante  appears  on  the  margin  of  the 
last  five  lines,  interrupted  only  by  the  per,  139. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first  Hnes  of 
the  terzine.  Par.  xxix.  100-145: 


lOO 

E 

103 

N 

106 

SI 

109 

N 

112 

E 

115 

0 

118 

MA  TALE 

121 

PER 

420   THE  CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF  DANTE 

124  DI 

127  MA  PE 

130  Q 

.133  E  S 

136  LA 

139   O 
142   V 

145    UNO  M 

Read:  peremas  qui  velo.  dante  si  noma  nel  poema 

Note  that  the  word  poema  is  spelled  on  the  marginal 
letters,  all  but  one  being  initials,  of  four  consecutive  lines, 
II 2-1 21. 

A  proof  of  the  close  relationship  between  the  Vita  Nuova 
and  the  Divina  Commedia  appears  in  the  fact  that  the  Vita 
Nuova  contains  cryptograms  similar  in  meaning  and  identical 
in  form  to  cryptograms  found  in  the  Divina  Commedia. 

Following  are  the  last  five  lines  of  the  fourteenth  sonnet 
in  the  Vita  Nuova^  xxiv.  59-63: 

Venire  inverso  il  loco  la  ov'  i'  era, 
L'  una  appresso  dell'  altra  meraviglia: 
E  si  come  la  mente  mi  ridice, 
Amor  mi  disse:  Questa  e  Primavera, 
E  quella  ha  nome  Amor,  si  mi  somiglia. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 

59  V 

60  L 

61  E 

62  AM 

63  E 

Read:  velame 

The  line  preceding  these  five  lines  begins  with  lo  vidi. 

The  eighteenth  sonnet  in  the  Vita  Nuova  appears  in  two 
versions.  For  reasons  that  must  have  been  sufficient,  Dante 
gives  first  what  he  calls  the  Primo  cominciamento  and  then 
the  final  form  of  the  completed  sonnet.  The  Primo  comincia- 
mento reads: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  421 

Era  venuta  nella  mente  mia 
La  gentil  donna,  che  per  suo  valore 
Fu  posta  dair  altissimo  signore 
Nel  ciel  deir  umiltate,  ov'  e  Maria. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  four  lines: 

ER 
LA 
FU 

NE 

Read:  funerale 

The  sonnet  commemorates  the  first  anniversary  of  the 
death  of  Beatrice. 
The  Secondo  cominciamento  reads: 

Era  venuta  nella  mente  mia 

Quella  donna  gentil,  cui  piange  Amore, 

Entro  quel  punto,  che  lo  suo  valore 

Vi  trasse  a  riguardar  quel  ch'  io  facia. 
Amor,  che  nella  mente  la  sentia, 

S'  era  svegliato  nel  distrutto  core, 

E  diceva  a'  sospiri:  Andate  fuore; 

Per  che  ciascun  dolente  sen  partia. 
Piangendo  usciano  fuori  del  mio  petto 

Con  una  voce,  che  sovente  mena 

Le  lagrime  dogliose  agli  occhi  tristi. 
Ma  quelli,  che  n'  uscian  con  maggior  pena, 

Venien  dicendo:  O  nobile  intelletto, 

Oggi  fa  r  anno  che  nel  ciel  salisti. 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  all  the  Hnes  of 
this  sonnet: 

E  PER 

QU  PIA 

ENT  C 

VI  LE    LA 

AM  MA 

S  VE 

ED  O 

Read:  peremas  vi  vel.  poema  cela  qui  dante 


422      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

CONTINUOUS  ACROSTICS  THROUGH 
ENTIRE  CANTOS 

The  first  of  the  cantos  in  which  I  have  deciphered  a 
continuous  reading  from  beginning  to  end' is  Inf.  i. 

On  the  first  lines  of  the  first  four  terzine  appears,  as  the 
reader  will  remember,  the  acrostic  nati.  Consider  now  the 
marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of  the  next  four  terzine: 


13 

M 

16 

GUARD 

19 

A 

22 

E 

GUARDA 

ME 

Read: 

On  the  first  lines  of  the  next  six  terzine  consider  now  the 
following  marginal  letters: 


25 

CO 

28 

POI 

31 

E 

34 

EN 

37 

T 

40 

M 

Read:  copio  mente 

It  thus  appears  that  on  the  first  lines  of  the  first  fourteen 
terzine  of  Inf.  i  there  is  a  consecutive  series  of  acrostics, 
reading: 

NATI.    GUARDA    ME.    COPIO    MENTE 

Now  the  reader  will  remember  that  I  showed  in  Chapter  II 
that  lines  i,  4,  7,  and  10,  on  which  the  nati  appears,  may  also 
be  considered  to  give  dante.  The  coincidence  of  the  two 
readings  on  the  same  lines  seem  to  indicate  that  dante  is  to 
be  identified  with  the  nati  as  a  typical  man.  Taking  then  the 
first  acrostic  as  dante,  the  complete  reading  on  the  first 
fourteen  terzine  may  be  considered: 

GUARDA  ME,  DANTE  (nATI).  COPIO  MENTE 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  423 

The  meaning  of  dante  :  copio  mente,  is  profoundly  true  of 
the  symboHsm  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  In  saying  that  he 
"copies  mind,"  Dante  is  implying  an  identification  of  himself 
with  Intelligence  which  is  constantly  repeated  throughout  the 
entire  poem.  In  the  Christian  Trinity  the  three  persons  are 
represented  respectively,  as  Dante  indicates  in  the  inscription 
over  the  gate  of  Hell,  Inf.  iii,  as  Power,  Intellect,  and  Love; 
Intellect  corresponds  to  the  divine  Son.  The  identification 
which  Dante  makes  of  himself  with  Christ  has  already  been 
indicated,  and  this  identification  carries  with  it,  therefore,  the 
identification  of  Dante  with  Intelligence.  This  identification 
is  indeed  expressed  by  an  acrostic  shown  in  Chapter  VI,  on 
the  very  lines  on  which  we  have  just  found  mente. 

The  DANTE,  as  identified  with  mente,  appears  thus: 

31  ED    ECCO    quasi    a 

34  EN 

37       T 

40         M 

Read:  ecco  quasi  me,  dante 

Now  on  the  very  lines  on  which  we  have  found  nati. 

GUARDA  ME.  COPIO  MENTE,  or  GUARDA  ME,  DANTE.  COPIO 

MENTE,  there  appears  another  reading.  Consider  on  these 
lines  the  following  marginal  letters: 


I 

NEL 

22 

E 

4 

A 

25 

CO 

7 

T 

28 

PO 

10 

I 

31 

E 

13 

M 

34 

EN 

16 

G 

37 

T 

19 

A 

40 

M 

:  MENTE 

COGITA 

NEL 

POEMA 

Consider  in  the  succeeding  seven   terzine  the   following 
marginal  letters: 


424      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF   DANTE 


43 

LO 

46 

QU 

49 

E 

52 

QUE  ST  A 

55 

E 

58 

T 

61 

MEN 

Read:  loque  questa  mente 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  in  the  succeeding 
fifteen  terzine: 


64 

QUAND 

I 

88 

VE 

67 

RI 

91 

A 

70 

N 

94 

C 

73 

POETA 

97 

E 

76 

MA 

100 

M 

79 

OR 

103 

QUE 

82 

0 

106 

DI 

85 

T 

Read: 

QUANDO    POETA 

MARO 

QUI 

MI    RICEVE,    DANTE 

Observe  on  lines  73,  76,  and  79  the  maro  following  the 
POETA;  maro  is  the  name  of  Virgil.  For  the  remarkable 
cryptographic  use  which  Dante  makes  of  maro  in  this  passage 
see  pp.  190-3.  Observe  also  that, exactly  as  in  the  final  lines  of 
Paradiso  already  examined,  all  the  letters  of  dante  appear 
in  the  initials  of  the  lines. 

Consider  now  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  first 
lines  of  the  remaining  terzine  of  the  canto: 


109 

QUEST 

124 

C 

112 

0 

127 

IN 

115 

OVE 

130 

ED    I 

n8 

E 

133 

C 

121 

ALL 

136 

A 

QUESTO    INDICA 

OVE 

E 

CALLE 

Read; 

Thus  the  continuous  anagrammatic  acrostic  reading  on  the 
first  lines  of  all  the  terzine  oi  Inf.  i  appears: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  425 

MENTE     (eCCO     QUASI     ME,     DANTE)     COGITA     NEL     POEMA 

(or  GUARDA  ME,  DANTE — NATI COPIO  MENTE).  LOQ.UE  Q.UESTA 

MENTE  QUANDO  POETA  MARO  QUI  MI   RICEVE,  DANTE.  QUESTO 
INDICA  OVE  E  CALLE. 

This  reading  is,  in  effect,  a  synopsis  of  the  text  of  the  canto. 

Following  is  the  continuous  anagrammatic  acrostic  on  the 
first  lines  of  all  the  terzine  of  Purg.  xxix. 

Consider  first  on  the  first  lines  of  the  first  twenty-nine 
terzine  the  following  marginal  letters: 

I  CA 

4       E 
7       A 

10  NO 

13  NE 

16  E 

19  MA    PERCHE   XL    B 

22  E 

25       C 

28         SOT 
31         M 
34         D 

37        o 

40         OR    CON    VI 
43        PO 
Read:  peremas  qui  poema.  eccomi,  dante  aldighiero. 

SONO    COSI    VELATO    QUI    CON    BELLA 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  on  the  next 
nine  terzine: 

88       P  103       E 

91  SI  106  LO 

94  OGN  109  E 

97  AD  112  TAN 

100  MA 

Read:  poema:  dante  lo  signa 

And  finally  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the 
first  lines  of  the  remaining  terzine  of  the  canto: 


46 

MA 

49 

LA 

52 

di 

55 

ID 

58 

I 

61 

LA 

64 

GE 

67 

L 

70 

QU 

73 

e 

76 

SI 

79 

QU 

82 

SO 

85 

T 

426      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


115 

NO 

118 

QU 

121 

T 

124 

L 

127 

E 

130 

D 

133 

A 

136 

L 

139 

M 

142 

POI 

145 

E 

148 

A 

151 

E 

154 

F 

Read:  poema:  dante  fello  qui 

Notice  that  the  word  poema  is  on  the  marginal  letters,  all 
but  one  being  initials,  of  the  first  lines  of  four  consecutive 
terzine,  139-148. 

The  complete  acrostic  in  this  canto,  as  thus  deciphered,  is: 

peremas  qui  poema.  eccomi,  dante  aldighiero.  sono 

cosi  velato   qui    con   bella.    poema:   dante  lo    signa. 

poema:    DANTE    FELLO    QUI. 

In  Purg.  XXX,  on  the  first  lines  of  all  the  terzine  preceding 
the  mention  of  Dante,  line  55,  appears  a  reading  particularly- 
pertinent  to  the  sense  of  the  text.  Consider  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

I    QUA  28    CO 

4    E  CHE  31    S 

7    F  34    EL 

10   E  37   s 

13  QUA  40  T 

16  COT  43  V 

19  T  46  PER  DI 

22  I  49  MA 

25  E  52  NE 

Read:  peremas  qui  vel.  ecco  che  dante  s'e  fatto  qui 

On  the  first  lines  of  the  terzine  from  line  ^^  to  line  78 
consider  the  following  marginal  letters: 

55       dante  67       TU 

58         QUA  70         RE 

61         I  73         GUA 

64         VI  76         GLI 

Read:  dante  eguaglia  qui  virtu 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  427 

Inlaid  in  this  passage  are  other  important  cryptograms, 
which  I  have  already  shown,  referring  to  the  symbolism. 
They  are  not  to  be  understood,  however,  as  belonging  to  the 
continuous  reading  that  runs  throughout  the  canto. 

On  the  first  lines  of  all  the  remaining  terzine  of  the  canto 
consider  the  following  marginal  letters: 


79 

c 

115 

QUE 

82 

E 

118 

M 

85 

SI  COME 

121 

A 

88 

PCI 

124 

SI 

91 

C 

127 

QU 

94 

MA 

130 

E 

97 

L 

133 

NE 

100 

E 

136 

T 

103 

V 

139 

PER 

106 

ON 

142 

A 

109 

NO 

145 

DI 

112 

MA 

Read:  peremas  qui  vel.  ecco  come  dante  si  noma  qui 

IN    POEMA 

The  complete  anagrammatic  acrostic  in  this  canto,  as  thus 
deciphered,  is: 

peremas  qui  vel.  ecco  CHE  DANTE  s'e  FATTO  QUI.  DANTE 
EGUAGLIA  qui  virtu,  peremas  QUI  VEL.  ECCO  COME  DANTE 
SI  NOMA    QUI    IN    POEMA. 


NON-ITALIAN  PHRASES 

I  have  shown  in  Chapter  III  several  examples  of  crypto- 
grams on  passages  not  Italian.  For  the  discussion  of  this  form 
of  cryptogram  see  page  95.  I  will  show  here  other  examples. 

In  Purg.  vii.  82,  is  the  Latin  ^\vr2ist'.  Salve  regina.  These 
words  may  be  regarded  as  an  anagram  for  vel  a  signare. 
This  reading  is  appropriate  to  the  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  in  which  the  divine  regina  veils  Bella,  the  mother 
of  Dante. 


428      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

There  is  nothing  to  prove,  indeed,  that  Dante  intended 
the  phrase:  salve  regina,  to  be  considered  as  an  anagram 
for  VEL  A  siGNARE.  But  there  is  plenty  of  evidence  that 
phrases  from  the  Bible  and  from  the  literature  of  the  Church 
were  commonly  considered  to  contain  cryptograms  ex- 
pressing the  inner  meaning  of  the  phrases.  An  example  is 
the  well-known  anagram  which  I  have  quoted  from  the 
Encyclopaedia  Brittanica^  the  change  of  Ave  Maria^  gratia 
plena^  Dominus  tecum  into  Virgo  serena^  pia^  munda  et 
immaculata.  It  is  my  belief  that  Dante  considered  all,  or 
nearly  all,  the  Latin  phrases  in  the  Divina  Commedia  to  be 
transformable,  like  the  foregoing  anagram,  into  readings 
appropriate  to  his  symbolism.  The  reason  for  my  belief  is  the 
fact  that  cryptographic  transformations  of  many  of  his  Latin 
phrases  into  appropriate  readings  may  actually  be  shown. 

In  Purg.  xxvii.  58,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Venite^  benedicti 
patris  mei.  Consider  in  these  words  the  final  and  contiguous 
letters  as  follows,  changing  the  di  q>{  benedicti  into  the  letter  d, 
of  which  the  letters  di  are  the  spelled  form: 

VENITE  E 

BENEDICTI  NEDCTI 

PATRIS  ATRIS 

MEI  EI 

Read:  reciti:  sei  dante 

In  Purg.  xxiii.  11,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Labia  mea,  Domine. 
These  words  contain  a  cryptic  reference  to  Bella,  the  mother 
of  Dante.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following  initial  and 
contiguous  letters: 

LABIA  LABIA 

MEA  MEA 

DOMINE  DOMI 

Read:  odami,  mia  bela 

Bela  as  a  kind  of  bella  may  be  suggested  in  the  words: 
per  modoy  which  immediately  follow  Labia  mea^  Domine.  The 
ODA  of  the  deciphered  reading  is  echoed  in  the  words  of 
Dante,  line  13: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  429 

O  dolce  Padre,  che  e  quel  ch'i  'odo? 

That  Dante  intended  to  suggest  that  he  heard  bella  in  the 
Latin  Labia  mea^  Dominey  is  indicated  in  the  acrostic  on  the 
three  lines  of  the  terzina  in  which  the  Latin  phrase  appears: 

10  E 

11  LABI 

12  TAL    C 

Read:  taci  bella 

As  we  have  already  seen,  taci  may  be  read  cita;  both 
make  sense  and  it  is  difficult  to  choose  between  them. 

The  Latin  word  Ave  appears  apart  from  a  Latin  context  in 
Purg.  X.  40,  and  Par.  xvi.  34,  and  with  Maria  in  Par.  iii.  121. 
This  word  was  recognized  early  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  a 
palindrome  for  eva.  The  palindrome  thus  associates  the 
divine  mother  Mary^  as  the  woman  to  whom  the  Ave  was 
uttered,  with  the  fallen  mother  Eve.  This  association  of  the 
two  mothers  in  an  identical  form  is  fundamental  in  the 
symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia. 

In  Purg.  x.,  line  44,  appears  the  Latin  Ecce  ancilla  Dei. 
These  words  yield  a  signature  in  which  the  t  is  missing. 


ecce 

E 

ancilla 

AN 

DEI 

D 

:  DANE 

The  T  is  suggested  by  the  reference  which  the  Latin  words, 
used  in  the  Annunciation,  have  to  Christ.  The  symbol  of 
Christ  is  the  cross,  and  the  cross,  as  has  already  appeared  in 
several  cryptograms,  is  to  be  considered  as  represented  by  the 
letter  t.  A  hint  of  the  silent  t,  as  the  image  of  the  cross  of 
Christ,  may  be  taken  from  the  words,  line  39,  imagine  che 
tace.  By  supplying,  then,  the  imagine  che  tace^  the  complete 
reading  is:  dante. 

In  Par.  xxiii.  128,  is  the  Latin  phrase  :/?^^/«^rof//.  Consider 
in  these  words  the  initial  and  marginal  letters  as  follows: 


430      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

REGINA  R 

COELI  COEL 

Read:  celor,  Latin  for  "I  am  concealed." 

The  Latin  words  Regina  coeli  are  from  an  antiphone  sung 
in  the  office  of  the  Virgin.  The  association  of  celor  with  a 
hymn  to  the  Virgin  has  a  bearing  on  the  fundamental  symbol- 
ism of  the  Divina  Commedia.  Dante,  as  we  have  seen, 
portrays  himself  at  the  culmination  of  his  mystical  journey, 
as  concealed  in  the  womb  of  the  divine  mother. 

In  Par.  xx.  94,  appears  the  Latin  Regnum  coelorum.  These 
words  may  be  considered  as  yielding   the  same  acrostic: 

CELOR. 

The  acrostic  on  both  Regina  coeli  and  Regnum  coelorum 
may  also  be  considered  as  cor.  The  Regnum  coelorum  as  cor 
recalls  the  Biblical:  "The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you," 
Luke  xvii.  21.  The  symbolism  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  the 
heart  or  as  within  the  body  is  fundamental  in  the  Divina 
Commedia, 

In  Par.  xxix,  line  12,  are  two  Latin  words,  ubi  and  quando; 
and  three  lines  later,  line  15,  is  the  Latin  subsisto.  These 
three  Latin  words,  taken  together,  yield  a  signature.  Con- 
sider in  these  three  words  the  following  terminal  and  con- 
tiguous letters: 


UBI 

BI 

QUANDO 

ANDO 

SUBSISTO 

TO 

Read:  bioo.  dant 

Bioo  is  the  Greek  Btoco,  "I  exist"  or  "I  live;"  it  echoes 
the  sense  of  Dante's  Latin  subsisto. 

In  the  first  twelve  lines  oiPurg.  xxxiii  are  three  expressions 
in  Latin:  Deus^  venerunt  genteSy  line  i;  Modicum,  et  non 
videbitis  me,  Et  iterum,  lines  lo-ii;  and  Modicum,  et  vos 
videbitis  me,  line  12.  A  determinant  in  the  choice  of  these 
expressions  is  the  meaning  which  they  may  be  considered  as 
conveying  in  the  anagrammatic  acrostic  to  be  found  on  the 
initial  and  contiguous  letters  of  all  the  words  involved. 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  431 

A  hint  for  the  method  of  deciphering  these  words  as  a 
cryptogram  may  be  taken  from  the  words,  lines  i  and  2: 

alternando 
Or  tre  or  quattro. 

Let  us  arrange  the  Latin  words,  therefore,  in  alternating 
groups  of  three  and  four.  As  there  are  fifteen  Latin  words  in 
all,  the  last  word,  me^  will  fall  outside  the  last  group  of  four. 
The  first  group,  then,  which  is  of  the  first  three  words, 
comprises  Deus,  venerunt  gentes.  Consider  in  these  words  the 
following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


DEUS 

DE 

VENERUNT 

VENERUNT 

GENTES 

GENTES 

In  the  letters  selected  above  the  v  is  to  be  taken  as  its 
equivalent  vi,  the  spelled  form  of  v.  The  un  of  venerunt 
spells  iin^  or  one;  as  a  one,  therefore,  it  may  be  taken  as  its 
cabalistic  equivalent  a. 

The  selected  letters  may  accordingly  be  transposed  thus: 

DE  DE 

VENERUNT       VI  ENER  A  T 
GENTES  GENTES 

Read:  vi  segnerete  dante 

The  second  group,  which  is  of  the  succeeding /owr  words, 
comprises  Modicum^  et  72on  videbitis.  Consider  in  these  words 
the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 

modicum  m 

ET  E 

NGN  NO 

VIDEBITIS  VIDE 

Read:  vedi  nome 

The  name  which  the  reader  is  thus  directed  to  see  is  the 
name  in  vi  segnerete  dante.  But  notice  that  by  the 
omission  of  the  e  of  vide  the  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of 
the  words  of  this  group  may  be  read:  nome  vid.  V  has  the 
value  of  five;  i  the  value  of  one;  and  d  the  value  of  five 


432      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

hundred.  By  omitting  the  zeroes,  there  thus  appears  the 
cryptic  number  515.  Thus  the  reading  vedi  nome  may  be 
converted  into  nome:  515. 

The  third  and  fourth  groups,  of  three  and  Jour  words 
respectively,  comprise  respectively  me^  et  iterum  and  modi- 
cum^ et  vos  videbitis.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following 
initial  and  contiguous  letters: 

{Third group,  of  three  words) 


ME 

M 

ET 

ET 

ITERUM 

IT 

Read:  metti 

{Fourth  group,  oj  jour 

words) 

MODICUM 

M 

E 

E 

vos 

V 

VIDEBITIS 

VI 

Read:  me  vvi 

The  two  last  readings  taken  together  are  thus:  metti  me 
VVI.  V  has  the  value  of  five;  i  the  value  of  one.  Thus  the 
cryptic  number  515  appears  again,  and  the  cryptogram  in  the 
last  two  groups  may  be  considered  as  metti  me,  515. 

The  entire  reading  for  the  four  groups  of  alternating  three 
and  four  words  is  thus:  vi  segnerete  dante.  vedi  nome 
(or  NOME  515).  metti  me  515. 

To  these  deciphered  readings  may  be  added  the  last  of  the 
Latin  words,  me,  which  falls  outside  the  alternating  groups  of 
three  and  four  words. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  me  is  used  to  rhyme  with  itself,  like 
Crista  and  Dante's  symbol  10  vidi.  This  identical  rhyming 
on  me  is,  like  the  identical  rhyming  on  10  vidi,  a  detail  of 
Dante's  imitation  of  Christ. 

In  Purg.  xvi.  19,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Agnus  Dei.  The  u  of 
agnus  is  the  same  as  v;  so  that  the  phrase  is  an  anagram  for: 
SEGNA  Div  (515). 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  433 

In  Purg.  xii.   no,  is   the  Latin   phrase:  Beati  pauperes 
spiritu.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following  telestic  letters: 


BEATI 

I 

PAUPERES 

ES 

SPIRITU 

TU 

SEI    TU 

Read: 

Dante  may  here  be  considered  as  hearing  himself  referred 
to  in  the  words  of  the  Beatitudes. 

In  Purg.  XV,  line  38,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Beati  misericordes. 
These  Latin  words  may  be  considered  to  yield  a  signature  in 
which  the  n  is  missing.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following 
telestic  letters: 

BEATI  EATI 

MISERICORDES       DES 

Read:  sei  date 

The  missing  n  is  referred  to  in  an  acrostic  on  the  first  lines 
of  the  four  terzine  ending  with  the  terzina  in  which  the  Latin 
phrase  appears: 

28  NGN 

31         TOS 
34        PO 
37       N 
Read:  non  posto  n 

In  Purg.  xxii.  5  and  6,  are  the  Latin  words:  Beati  and 
sitiunt.  These  two  words,  taken  together,  conceal  a  signature 
in  which  the  d  of  Dante  is  missing.  The  context  indicates  that 
the  missing  d  is  to  be  supplied. 

Consider  in  the  two  Latin  words  the  following  jfinal  and 
contiguous  letters: 

beati  EATI 

sitiunt  NT 

Read:  ti,  ante.  With  a  d  supplied,  the  reading  is  ti, 

DANTE. 


434      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

There  are  several  hints  in  the  context  to  supply  the  d. 
Notice,  in  the  first  place,  line  3: 

Avendomi  dal  viso  un  colpo  raso. 

These  words  are  capable  of  being  taken  as  a  hint  that  a  letter 
has  been  removed  from  Dante's  viso^  or  signature.  And  the 
whole  of  the  second  terzina,  in  which  the  Latin  words  appear, 
is  so  phrased  as  to  imply  that  Beati  and  sitiunt,  which  suggest 
the  sound  of  dante,  senz  altro,  cio  Jorniro^  line  6. 
Line  17  reads: 

Piu  strinse  mai  di  non  vista  persona. 

The  words  di  non  vista  are  capable,  when  removed  from 
their  context,  of  being  understood  as  an  allusion  to  the  unseen 
letter  d. 

Another  reference  to  the  concealed  d  may  be  found  in  an 
acrostic  on  the  initials  of  the  five  lines  ending  with  the  line  in 
which  sitiunt  appears: 

2  L 

3  A 

4  E 

5  D 

6  c 

Read: cela  d 

There  is  also  an  acrostic  on  all  the  first  eighteen  lines  of  the 

canto  which  seems  to  point  to  the  signature  hidden  in  Beati 

and  sitiunt.  Consider  on  lines  1-18  the  following  marginal 
letters: 

1  Gi  10  QU 

2  L  A  II  AC 

3  AVE  12  PUR 

4  E  Q  13  O 

5  DET  14  NE 

6  CON  15  CHE 

7  E  16  M 

8  M  A  17  PI 

9  SE  18  SI 

Read:  peremas  qui  vel.  ecco  che  dante  signa  qui  poema 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  435 

In  Purg.  xxix.  3,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Beati  quorum  tecta 
sunt  peccata.  Consider  the  final  letters  of  these  words: 


BEATI 

I 

QUORUM 

M 

TECTA 

A 

SUNT 

T 

PECCATA 

A 

Read:  amati 

Compare  with  the  sense  of  this  telestic  the  donna  inna- 
morata^  line  i. 

In  Purg.  xix.  73,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Adhaesit  pavimento 
anima  mea.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following  final  and 
contiguous  letters: 


ADHAESIT 

T 

PAVIMENTO 

0 

ANIMA 

MA 

MEA 

A 

Read:  amato 

In  Purg.  xix^  99,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Scias  quod  ego  Jui 
successor  Petri.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following  final 
and  contiguous  letters: 


SCIAS 

AS 

QUOD 

od 

EGO 

0 

FUI 

I 

SUCCESSOR 

or 

PETRI 

I 

Read: 10  saro  dio 

In  the  ultimate  identification  of  himself  with  God,  Dante, 
in  a  sense,  becomes  God. 

In  Purg.  XXV.  121,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  Summae  Deus 
clementiae.  Taking  the  u  of  Deus  for  its  equivalent  v,  consider 
in  these  words  the  following  final  and  contiguous  letters: 


436      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

SUMMAE  AE 

DEUS  DEUS 

CLEMENTIAE  NTIAE 

Read:  ave.  sei  dante 

In  Par.  xxv.  98,  is  the  Latin  Sperent  in  te.  These  words 
contain  a  signature  which  may  be  deciphered  by  substituting, 
as  in  the  phrase:  In  te^  Domine,  speravi,  page  443,  an  a  for 
the  I,  and  by  supplying  a  d,  in  accordance  with  hints  in  the 
text  to  do  so.  Consider  in  these  Latin  words  the  following 
initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


sperent 

spere 

IN     =    AN 

AN 

TE 

TE 

Read:  per  se,  ante 

By  supplying  a  d  from  the  context,  the  reading  may  be 

PER    SE,    DANTE. 

A  hint  to  supply  a  d  may  be  the  fact  that  the  Latin  words 
are  immediately  followed  by  di,  the  preposition  which  may 
be  considered  as  the  spelled  form  of  d. 

That  DANTE  is  here  concealed  is  hinted  in  the  acrostic 
on  lines  94-99: 

94  E 

95  LA  DOV 

96  QUE 

97  E  PRIMA 

98  SPERENT 

99  A 

Read:  peremas  velo.  dante  pare  qui 

Another  hint  that  the  Latin  words  are  to  be  understood 
as  having  a  cryptic  reference  to  Dante  may  be  taken  from 
Dante's  words,  lines  88-89: 

Le  nuove  e  le  scritture  antiche 
Pongono  il  segno,  ed  esso  lo  mi  addita. 

There  is  surely  a  double  meaning  in  these  words.  Dante  is 
referring  not  only  to  the  New  and  Old  Testaments;  he  is 


PROBLEMATIC  ASPECTS  437 

referring  also  to  the  new  and  old  ways  of  writing,  the 
manifest  and  the  cryptic.  In  the  present  instance,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Latin  Sperent  in  te^  Dante  says  in  effect 
that  he  is  himself  referred  to. 

In  Par.  xv.  28-30,  Cacciaguida,  the  ancestor  of  Dante, 
addresses  Dante  in  Latin.  His  words  are: 

O  sanguis  meus,  o  superinfusa 

Gratia  Dei!  sicut  tibi,  cui 

Bis  unquam  coeli  ianua  reclusa? 

Consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of  all 
the  words  of  this  terzina: 


0 

0 

SANGUIS 

SA 

MEUS 

ME 

0 

0 

SUPERINFUSA 

SUPER 

GRATIA 

G 

DEI 

D 

SICUT 

SIC 

TIBI 

TI 

CUI 

CUI 

BIS 

HI 

UNQUAM 

UN  QUA 

COELI 

CO 

IANUA 

IANUA 

RECLUSA 

RE 

Read:  peremas  vi.  song  qui  in  rebus  tug  cacciaguida 

Rebus  is  a  well  recognized  word  in  cryptography. 

In  connection  with  the  cryptogram  in  the  preceding 
passage,  let  me  show  the  cryptogram  on  the  four  terzine, 
Par.  XV.  34-45 : 

Ch6  dentro  agli  occhi  suoi  ardeva  un  riso        34 

Tal,  ch'  io  pensai  co'  miei  toccar  lo  fondo 

Delia  mia  grazia  e  del  mio  Paradise. 
Indi  ad  udire  ed  a  veder  giocondo,  37 

Giunse  lo  spirto  al  suo  principio  cose 

Ch'  io  non  intesi,  si  parld  profondo: 


438      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

N^  per  elezion  mi  si  nascose,  40 

Ma  per  necessity,  ch^  il  suo  concetto 

Al  segno  dei  mortal  si  soprappose. 
E  quando  1'  arco  dell'  ardente  affetto  43 

Fu  si  sfocato  che  il  parlar  discese 

Inver  lo  segno  del  nostro  intelletto; 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines 
of  these  terzine: 

34         CH 

37      I 

40         N 

43       E 

Read:  niche. 

This  may  be  an  Italian  transliteration  of  the  Greek  vIkt]. 

There  are  several  hints  in  this  passage:  cose  cK  to  non  in- 
tesiy  s)  parlo  projondo^  38~395  ^^  P^''^  elezion  mi  si  nascose, 
40;  segno  del  nostro  intelletto,  45. 

Ni/cry,  Greek  for  "victory,"  expresses  Dante's  satisfaction 
in  his  meeting  with  Cacciaguida,  who  as  a  benign  father 
image  contrasts  with  the  malignant  and  hated  father  image 
as  it  appears  in  Filippo  Argenti. 

In  Par.  vii.  1-3,  is  a  terzina  composed  entirely  of  a 
combination  of  Latin  and  Hebrew.  This  terzina  recalls  the 
foregoing  Latin  terzina,  in  which  a  rebus  is  discovered. 

Consider  in  the  words  of  the  present  terzina  the  following 
initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


OSANNA 

0 

SANCTUS 

SA 

DEUS 

DE 

SABAOTH 

SAB 

SUPERILLUSTRANS 

SUPERI 

CLARITATE 

CLARI 

TUA 

T 

FELICES 

FELI 

IGNES 

IGNE 

HORUM 

HOR 

MALACHOTH 

MALA 

Read:  peremas.  suo  figlio  dante  rischiara  bella 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  439 

In  Gnostic  symbolism  the  divine  son,  as  Light,  in  the  in- 
cestuous relation  with  the  divine  mother  through  whom  he  is 
to  be  reborn,  is  described  as  shining  upon,  or  illuminating, 
her. 

InP«r^.  xxvi.  lines  140-147,  there  is  a  passage  in  Provencal, 
as  if  uttered  by  the  Provencal  poet  Arnaut.  The  passage  is: 

Tan  m'  abellis  vostre  cortes  deman, 

Qu'ieu  no-m  puesc,  ni-m  voil  a  vos  cobrire. 
leu  sui  Arnaut,  que  plor,  e  vau  cantan,  142 

Consiros  vei  la  passada  folor, 

E  vei  jauzen  lo  jorn  qu'  esper,  denan. 
Ara  vos  prec  per  aquella  valor,  145 

Que  vos  guida  al  som  de  1'  escalina, 

Sovenha  vos  a  temps  de  ma  dolor. 

Consider  on  all  the  lines  in  Provencal  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

140  TAN  M  ABELL 

141  Q.U  I 

142  lEU 

143  CON 

144  E  V 

145  ARA 

146  QU 

147  SQ 

Read:  quasi  vece  arnaut,  nomo  qui  bella 

Notice,  moreover,  that  the  first  and  last  words  of  the  first 
line  of  the  Provencal: 

TAN DEMAN, 

spell  DANTE,  MAN.  The  MAN  suggcsts,  like  "hand"  in  English, 
"signature." 

In  Purg.  XXX  there  is  a  series  of  Latin  quotations,  all  of 
which  are  to  be  considered  as  containing  a  hidden  meaning. 
The  first  appears  on  line  1 1 :  Veni^  sponsa^  de  Libano.  This 
phrase  is  followed,  line  15,  by  alleluiando^  which  may  be 
considered  as  another  foreign  word.  In  these  five  foreign 
words  consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


440      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF    DANTE 


VENI 

VE 

SPONSA 

S 

DE 

D 

LIBANO 

LIB 

ALLELUIANDO 

ALLE 

Read:  disvela 

BELLA 

The  next  Latin  phrase  is:  ad  vocem  tanti  senis,  Hne  17. 
Consider  in  these  words  the  following  initial  and  contiguous 
letters: 


AD 

AD 

VOCEM 

VO 

TANTI 

TA 

SENIS 

SENI 

Read:  savio  dante 

Possibly  the  two  phrases,  with  alleluiando^  should  be  read 
together,  thus: 


VENI 

VE 

SPONSA 

S 

DE 

D 

LIBANO 

LIBANO 

ALLELUIANDO 

ALLE 

AD 

A 

VOCEM 

voc 

TANTI  S 

TA 

SENIS 

SENI 

Read:  savio  dante  si  vela  con  bella 

The  phrase:  Veni^  sponsa^  de  Libano  is  uttered  by  un  di  loro^ 
quasi  da  del  messo.  The  association  of  these  words  with  Dante 
appears  from  the  consideration  of  the  phrases:  del  del  messo, 
and  messo  da  dio  (see  p.  '^2S)- 

Immediately  following  the  two  Latin  phrases  just  con- 
sidered are  two  others.  They  appear  in  lines  19-21 :  Benedictus 
qui  venisy  and  Manibus  0  date  lilia  plenis. 

Consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  in 
these  Latin  words: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  441 


BENEDICTUS 

BEN 

QUI 

QUI 

VENIS 

VEN 

MANIBUS 

MA 

0 

0 

DATE 

DATE 

LI  LI  A 

LILIA 

PLENIS 

PLE 

Read:  veli,  dante,  bella  qui  m  poema 

In  Par.  xii.  93,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  decimas  quae  sunt 
pauperum  'Dei.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following  telestic 
letters,  taking  the  final  u  oi pauperum  as  its  equivalent  v: 


DECIMAS 

AS 

quae 

AE 

SUNT 

NT 

PAUPERUM 

PERUM 

DEI 

DEI 

Read:  peremas  vi  dante 

In  Far,  xiii.  100,  is  the  Latin  phrase:  si  est  dare  primum 
motum  esse.  Consider  in  these  words  the  following  initial  and 
contiguous  letters: 


SI 

SI 

EST 

£ 

DARE 

DA 

PRIMUM 

PR 

MOTUM 

MO 

ESSE 

E 

Read:  peremas  dio 

In  Purg.  ix.  140,  is  the  Latin  sentence:  Te  Deum  laudamus. 
These  words  contain  a  signature,  dante,  in  which  the  letter  n 
is  missing,  and  the  missing  n  is  unmistakably  referred  to  in 
the  passage  in  which  the  words  occur.  Consider  the  following 
initial  and  contiguous  letters  in  the  Latin  words: 


442      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

TE  TE 

DEUM  DEV  (u  and  V  being  equivalent) 

LAUDAMUS  LA 

Read:  vel:  date 

With  an  n  the  reading  would  be  vel:  dante.  Now  there 
are  various  hints  in  the  text  that  this  vel:  date  is  to  be 
understood  as  vel:  dante.  The  similarity  of  the  sound  of  the 
two  phrases  is  so  confusing  that,  as  Dante  suggests,  line  145, 

Or  si  or  no  s'intendon  le  parole. 

And  in  line  132  there  is  an  expression  which  is  so  phrased  that 
it  may  be  understood,  when  taken  from  its  context,  as  a  direct 
allusion  to  the  missing  n:  chi  'ndietro  si  guata.  By  removing 
the  chi  from  this  phrase  there  appears  the  following:  N dietro 
si  guata. 

Dante  has  further  indicated  the  silent  n  in  an  acrostic  in 
the  passage  in  which  the  Latin  phrase  appears.  The  last  ten 
lines  of  the  canto  are: 

Non  rugghio  si,  ne  si  mostro  si  acra  136 

Tarpeia,  come  tolto  le  fu  il  buono 

Metello,  per  che  poi  rimase  macra. 
lo  mi  rivolsi  attento  al  primo  tuono,  139 

E  Te  Deum  laudamus  mi  parea 

Udir  in  voce  mista  al  dolce  suono. 
Tale  imagine  appunto  mi  rendea  142 

Cio  ch'  io  udiva,  qual  prender  si  suole 

Quando  a  cantar  con  organi  si  stea: 
Che  or  si  or  no  s'  intendon  le  parole.  145 

Consider  on  the  regular  ten-line  frame  the  following 
marginal  letters: 

136    N 

142    TA 
145    C 

Read:  taci  n 

The  passage  which  concludes  with  the  lines  just  quoted 
records  a  curious  instance  of  disobedience  on  the  part  of 
Dante.  The  angel  of  God  has  just  permitted  Dante  and  Virgil 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  443 

to  pass  through  the  entrance  into  Purgatory  proper,  and  in 
admitting  the  poets  he  says,  Hnes  131-132; 

Entrate;  ma  facciovi  accorti 
Che  di  fuor  torna  chi  'ndietro  si  guata. 

Now  in  spite  of  the  threatened  penalty  of  being  turned  out  if 
he  looked  back,  Dante  states,  line  139,  that 

lo  mi  rivolsi  attento  al  primo  suono. 
But  why,  if  the  angel  meant  what  he  said,  was  the  penalty  not 
inflicted?  Why  was  Dante  not  compelled  to  tornare  di  fuor? 
There  is  apparently  no  answer  given  to  this  question  in  the 
poem,  but  the  answer  is  implied  in  the  cryptogram  which  has 
just  been  deciphered.  Dante  was  turned  out,  as  a  result  of 
looking  back,  in  the  sense  of  having  his  name  turned  out  of 
Te  Deum  laudamus. 

In  Purg.  XXX.  83-84,  are  two  Latin  phrases:  In  te^  Domine, 
speravi  and  pedes  meos.  These  Latin  words  indicate  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  a  passage  in  a  Psalm  sung  by  the  angels.  But 
why  does  Dante  indicate  the  exact  limits  of  the  passage  ?  He 
does  so,  as  I  shall  show,  as  a  means  of  getting  the  exact  letters 
needed  for  a  cryptogram.  Notice,  in  the  first  place,  the 
suggestion  of  his  name  in  In  te,  Domine.  Of  the  first  five 
letters  in  this  phrase  four  belong  to  the  poet's  name.  The 
coincidence  can  scarcely  be  imagined  to  have  escaped  the 
attention  of  Dante.  Now  the  letters  In  te,  D  can  be  con- 
verted into  Jn  te,  D  by  the  cabalistic  method  of  considering 
the  letter  i,  which  is  a  one  in  the  Arabic  notation,  as  the  letter 
corresponding  to  one,  or  a,  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet. 
Consider  now  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters, 
changing  by  the  recognized  cabalistic  method  the  i  of  In  and 
the  I  of  Domine  into  a's: 


IN 

=     AN 

AN 

TE 

TE 

DOMIKE 

=     DOMANE 

DOMA 

SPERAVI 

SPERA 

PEDES 

PE 

MEOS 

ME 

:   PEREMAS 

POEMA.    DANTE 

444      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

In  Par.  xi.  62,  is  the  Latin  phrase :£/<:or<2Wp^/r(?.  Consider 
in  these  words  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 

ET  E 

CORAM  C 

PATRE  PA 

Read:  pace 

Consider  in  the  same  words  the  following  final  and 
contiguous  letters: 

ET  T 

CORAM  MA 

PATRE  RE 

Read:  mater 

I  suspect  that  in  the  use  of  single  Latin  words  in  the  text 
of  the  Divina  Commedia  there  may  be  a  double  meaning. 
This  double  meaning  may  appear  in  an  anagrammatic  re- 
arrangement of  the  word. 

We  have  seen  the  anagram  ave — eva.  Another  is  velle^ 
which  appears  in  Par.  iv.  25  and  Par.  xxxiii.  I43.  This  may  be 
read  el  vel,  el  being  a  good  form  for  //.  Another  example  is 
Delectasti^  Purg.  xxviii.  80,  quoted  from  Psalm  xcii.  4.  This 
word  is  an  anagram  for  celasti  de.  As  de  is  a  symbol  of 
Dante,  the  meaning  of  the  anagram  is:  celasti  dante. 

In  Par.  xxvi.  17,  reference  is  made  to  the  Greek  letters 
alpha  and  omega.  These  letters  may  be  considered  as  suggest- 
ing a  signature,  in  that  alpha^  or  a,  is  the  beginning  and 
om^^«,  or  o,  is  the  end,  of  aldighiero.  a  .  .  .  o,  as  used  for 
aldighiero,  is  exactly  analogous  to  the  constant  use  of  de, 
or  ED,  for  DANTE.  The  identification  of  Dante  and  Christ, 
expressed  many  times  and  in  many  ways  in  the  Divina 
Commedia^  is  implicit  again  in  these  letters,  for  "I  am  Alpha 
and  Omega    .    .    .    saith  the  Lord." 

GROUPS  OF  PROPER  NAMES 

We  have  already  seen  in  Chapter  III  examples  of  crypto- 
grams constructed  on  the  proper  names  of  a  passage.  The 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  445 

first  cryptogram  of  this  kind  which  I  showed  is  constructed 
on  the  names  of  the  group  of  souls  that  accompanied  Christ 
in  his  ascent  from  Hell  to  Heaven.  And  I  suggested  that  by 
signing  his  name  in  a  cryptogram  on  the  first  letters  of  their 
names  Dante  identifies  himself  with  them.  I  give  here 
examples  of  cryptograms  on  other  groups  of  proper  names. 
In  the  nobile  castello  Dante  sees  the  heroes  and  heroines 
of  antiquity  and  then  the  philosophers.  Both  these  groups 
show  cryptographic  signatures  on  the  first  letters  of  the 
proper  names.  The  passage  containing  the  heroes  and 
heroines,  Inf.  iv.  1 21-129,  is  as  follows: 

lo  vidi  Elettra  con  molti  compagni,  121 

Tra'  quai  conobbi  Ettore  ed  Enea, 

Cesare  armato  con  gli  occhi  grifagni. 
Vidi  Cammilla  e  la  Pentesilea,  124 

Dair  altra  parte  vidi  il  re  Latino, 

Che  con  Lavinia  sua  figlia  sedea. 
Vidi  quel  Bruto  che  caccio  Tarquino,  127 

Lucrezia,  Julia,  Marzia  e  Corniglia, 

E  solo  in  parte  vidi  il  Saladino. 

Note  that  the  initials  of  these  three  terzine  are: 

121  I 
124  V 
127       V 

Read:  v  i  v,  that  is,  515. 

Consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  in  all 
the  proper  names  in  this  passage  of  heroes  and  heroines: 


ELETTRA 

ELE 

ETTORE 

E 

ENEA 

ENE 

CESARE 

CESA 

CAMMILLA 

CAM 

PENTESILEA 

PE 

LATINO 

L 

LAVINIA 

LAV 

BRUTO 

BRUTO 

446      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


TARQUINTO 

TARQ.U 

LUCREZIA 

L 

lULIA 

1 

MARZIA 

M 

CORNIGLIA 

CO 

SALADINO 

SALAD 

Read:  peremas  vel.  ecco  qui  dante  colla  sua  matre 

BELLA 

The   following   passage,   Inf.   iv.    130-144,   contains   the 
philosophers: 

Poi  che  innalzai  un  poco  piu  le  ciglia,  130 

Vidi  il  Maestro  di  color  che  sanno, 

Seder  tra  filosofica  fainigha. 
Tutti  lo  niiran,  tutti  onor  gli  fanno.  133 

Quivi  vid'  io  Socrate  e  Platone, 

Che  innanzi  agli  altri  piu  presso  gli  stanno. 
Democrito,  che  il  mondo  a  caso  pone,  136 

Diogenes,  Anassagora  e  Tale, 

Empedocles,  Eraclito  e  Zenone: 
E  vidi  il  buono  accoglitor  del  quale,  139 

Dioscoride  dico:  e  vidi  Orfeo, 

Tullio  e  Lino  e  Seneca  morale: 
Euclide  goemetra  e  Tolommeo,  142 

Ippocrate,  Avicenna  e  Galieno, 

Averrois,  che  il  gran  comento  feo. 

The  first  philosopher  whom  Dante  sees  is  //  maestro  di 
color  che  sanno^  line  131.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Dante,  who 
is  here  referring  to  Aristotle,  does  not  mention  him  by  name. 
The  reason  that  Dante  does  not  mention  Aristotle  by  name 
is  simply  for  the  sake  of  the  duplicity  of  his  intention.  In 
referring  to  il  maestro  di  color  che  s  anno  he  is  indicating  not  only 
Aristotle  but  himself.  A  similar  duplicity  appears  in  the 
anonymous  allusions  to  David,  Par.  xx.  38,  ^Eneas,  InJ.  \. 
73-74>  ^nd  Homer,  Purg.  xxii.  loi. 

Aristotle  is  seated,  as  Dante  says,  tra  filosofica  famiglia^ 
with  Socrates  and  Plato  nearest  to  him.  These  three  form  a 
philosophic  trinity  as  a  family  analogous  to  the  divine 
Trinity.  This  philosophic  trinity  is  likewise  analogous  to  the 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  447 

poetical  trinity  of  Virgil,  Statius,  and  Dante.  Regarded  thus 
as  a  trinity,  the  three  supreme  philosophers  are  separated 
from  the  rest  and  are  named  by  Dante  in  his  poem  separately, 
lines  130-135.  Notice  that  in  the  line  in  which  he  mentions 
Plato  and  Socrates: 

Quivi  vid'  io  Socrate  e  Platone, 
the  Q.UIVI  vid'io  is  the  equivalent  of  quivi  515,  or  Dante 
himself. 

The  philosophers  grouped  about  Aristotle,  Plato,  and 
Socrates  are  named  in  the  next  lines,  136-I44. 

Recall  first  that  Dante  has  spelled  his  name  by  the 
"string"  cipher  method  on  line  137: 

Diogenes,  ANassagora  e  TalE. 
The  signature  is  especially  plain  because  the  first  letters  of 
the  three  names  spell  in  themselves:  dant. 

In  addition  to  these  three  philosophers,  Diogenes 
Anassagora,  and  Tale,  who  give  a  dant  by  themselves,  there 
are  grouped  about  the  philosophic  trinity  of  Aristotle, 
Socrates,  and  Plato  the  following:  Democrito,  Empedocles, 
Eraclito,  Zenone,  Dioscoride,  Orfeo,  Tullio,  Lino,  Seneca, 
Euclide,  Tolommeo,  Ippocrate,  Avicenna,  Galieno,  and 
Averrois. 

Take  of  these  names  the  following  contiguous  letters, 
beginning  with  the  initials,  noticing  that  the  i  of  Ippocrate 
is  aspirated  in  the  original  Greek  and  so  may  be  regarded  as 
supplying  an  h: 


DEMOCRITO 

D 

EMPEDOCLES 

E 

ERACLITO 

ER 

ZENONE 

ZENO 

DIOSCORIDE 

DI 

ORFEO 

OR 

TULLIO 

TU 

LINO 

LI 

SENECA 

S 

EUCLIDE 

E 

TOLOMMEO 

T 

448      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


IPPOCRATE 

HI 

AVICENNA 

A 

GALIENO 

G 

AVERROIS 

A 

Read;  dante  aldighiero,  tu  sei  zero 
Or,  by  regarding  the  "zero"  as  the  equivalent  of  an  o:  sei 

TU,    O    DANTE    ALDIGHIERO. 

I  beHeve  that  this  cryptogram  is  to  be  understood  in  the 
double  sense  which  I  have  here  indicated.  Dante  is  here 
arrogating  to  himself  the  combined  wisdom  of  all  the 
philosophers  and  saying  at  the  same  time  that  the  wisdom  of 
man  is  nothing. 

Notice,  moreover,  how  nearly  Dante  comes  to  spelling 
his  name  on  the  initials  of  lines  140-144: 

D 
T 
E 

I 

A 

With  the  next  line,  in  which  he  says  with  a  double  meaning, 

lo  non  posso  ritrar  di  tutti  appieno, 

he  completes  the  spelling.   Consider  for   this  spelling   the 
following  marginal  letters: 


140 

D 

141 

T 

142 

E 

143 

I 

144 

AV 

145 

10    N 

Read:  10  vi, 

DANTE 

Interesting  in  connection  with  Dante's  play  on  the  names 
of  the  ancient  philosophers  is  his  reference  to  Thomas 
Aquinas,  Par.  x.  97-99,  which  is  so  phrased  as  to  suggest  the 
name  of  Dante.  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  is  speaking,  indicates 
thus  the  names  of  his  companions  and  himself: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  449 

Questi  che  m'  e  a  destra  piu  vicino, 
Frate  e  maestro  fummi,  ed  esso  Alberto 
E  di  Cologna,  ed  io  Thomas  d'  Aquino. 

The  words  in  which  he  refers  to  himself,  ed  io  Thomas 
d' Aquino,  begin  with  Dante's  symbol  ed  io,  and  the  letters 
beginning  the  two  proper  names  that  follow  may  be  con- 
sidered as  T  and  d'aquin,  which  may  be  read:  dant  qui. 
Notice  also  that  10  dante  is  spelled  by  the  initial  t  of  Thomas 
and  the  six  letters  immediately  preceding:  na  ed  io  t. 

There  is  a  group  of  proper  names  in  Purg.  vii.  9  i-i  1 2.  The 
first  five  terzine  of  this  passage  are  as  follows: 

Colui  che  piu  sied'  alto,  e  fa  sembianti  91 

D'  aver  negletto  cIo  che  far  dovea, 

E  che  non  move  bocca  agli  altrui  canti, 
Ridolfo  imperador  fu,  che  potea  94 

Sanar  le  piaghe  ch'  hanno  Italia  morta, 

Si  che  tardi  per  altri  si  ricrea. 
L'  altro,  che  nella  vista  lui  conforta,  97 

Resse  la  terra  dove  1'  acqua  nasce, 

Che  Molta  in  Albia,  ed  Albia  in  mar  ne  porta: 
Ottacchero  ebbe  nome,  e  nelle  fasce  100 

Fu  meglio  assai  che  Vincislao  suo  figlio 

Barbuto,  cui  lussuria  ed  ozio  pasce. 
E  quel  Nasetto,  che  stretto  a  consiglio  103 

Par  con  colui  ch'  ha  si  benigno  aspetto, 

Mori  fuggendo  e  disfiorando  il  giglio: 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first  lines  of 
these  terzine: 


91 

c 

94 

R 

97 

LA 

100 

0 

103 

E 

Read:  e  claro 

The  initials  of  the  first  five  proper  names  in  this  passage 
are: 


450      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

RIDOLFO  R 

ITALIA  I 

MOLTA  M 

ALBIA  A 

ALBIA  A 

Read:  maria 

The  rest  of  the  proper  names  in  the  passage  are: 

OTTACHERO 
VINCISLAO 

FRANCIA 

Consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of 
these  names: 
o 

VI 
FRA 

Read:  vi  faro 

Thus  the  complete  reading  on  this  group  of  proper  names 

is:  VI    faro    MARIA. 

This  passage  occurs  in  the  description  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Princes,  the  greynbo  which,  as  I  have  already  shown,  is  asso- 
ciated in  Dante's  symbolism  with  the  divine  mother,  Maria. 

In  InJ.  xvi.  94-102,  is  a  group  of  proper  names  (and  we  have 
a  right  to  regard  Alpe  as  a  proper  name).  Of  these  names 
consider  the  following  contiguous  letters  beginning  with  the 
initials: 

VESO  V 

APENNINO  APEN 

ACQ.UAQUETA  A 

FORLI  FORLI 

BENEDETTO  BEN 

ALPE  AL 

Read:  fanno  via  per  bella 

The  passage  shows  Dante's  elaborate  water  and  river 
symbolism.  Note  that  immediately  following  is  the  symbol  of 
the  cord  and  the  lonza. 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  451 

In  Purg.  xiv.  16-48,  is  a  group  of  proper  names  of  which  we 
consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


TOSCANA 

TO 

FALTERONA 

FALTER 

ARNO 

A 

PELORO 

PEL 

CIRCE 

CI 

BOTOLI 

B 

Read:  factito  per  bella 

Factito  is  Latin.  This  passage  is  an  elaborate  description  of 
the  Arno  and  is  another  instance  of  Dante's  river-mother 
symbolism. 

The  following  passage,  Purg.  vii,  4-9,  contains  Virgil's 
description  of  himself: 

'Prima  che  a  questo  monte  fosser  volte       4 

L'  anime  degne  di  salire  a  Dio, 

Fur  r  ossa  mie  per  Ottavian  sepolte. 
lo  son  Virgilio;  e  per  null'  altro  rio  7 

Lo  ciel  perdei,  che  per  non  aver  fe': 

Cosi  rispose  allora  il  Duca  mio. 

Of  the  three  proper  names  in  this  passage  consider  the 
following  initial  and  contiguous  letters: 


DIG 

DI 

OTTAVIAN 

0 

VIRGILIO 

v 

Read:  divo 

Consider  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters  of  all 
the  proper  names  of  the  last  ten  lines  oi  Purg.  vii: 


BEATRICE 

BEATRI 

MARGHERITA 

MAR 

COSTANZA 

CO 

ARRIGO 

A 

INTGHILTERRA 

I 

GUGLIELMO 

GUGLIEL 

452      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


MARCHESE 

M 

ALESSANDRA 

ALE 

MONFERRATO 

MO 

CANAVESE 

CANAVE 

Read:  ecco  vi  nom.  matre  bella  eguaglia  maria 

The  first  name  in  the  series  is  Beatrice.  The  cryptogram 

thus  associates  Bella,  Beatrice,  and  Maria.  Compare  this  with 

the  acrostic:  eguaglia  cosi  la  madre,  shown  on  page  337. 

There  are  two  other  cryptograms  on  groups  of  proper 

names  which  include  the  name  Beatrice. 

Consider,  first,  the  following  initial  and  contiguous  letters 
of  all  the  proper  names  in  Par.  xxix.  1-9: 
latona  la 

montone  mon 

libra  l 

beatrice  bea 

Read:  noma  bella 

Now  consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the  first 
lines  of  the  first  four  terzine  oi  Par.  xxxii: 


I 

A 

4 

L 

7 

NEL 

10 

S 

SNELLA 

Read: 

The  passage  refers  to  Eve,  and  the  meaning  may  be  that 
Eve  is  quick  or  prone  to  sin. 

Now  consider  in  this  passage  the  following  initial  and 
contiguous  letters  of  the  proper  names: 


MARIA 

MA 

RACHEL 

RA 

BEATRICE 

BEATRICE 

SARA 

SA 

REBECCA 

RE 

JUDIT 

lUD 

Read:  Beatrice  vi  sara  madre 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  453 

Consider,  finally,  the  following  marginal  letters  of  the 
first  six  lines  of  the  passage: 

1  A 

2  LIB 

3  E   CO 

4  L 

5  QU 

6  EC 

Read:  ecco  qui  bella 


ACROSTICS  ON  FIRST  LINES  OF 
CONSECUTIVE  CANTOS 

It  is  a  recognized  device  in  cryptography  to  use  for 
acrostics  not  only  the  initial  positions  of  lines  or  of  stanzas 
but  also  of  larger  units  of  text,  as  in  the  signature  of  Fran- 
cesco Colonna  in  the  Hypnerotomachia  Poliphili.  This 
signature,  as  I  have  already  explained,  is  written  on  the 
initials  of  the  chapters  of  the  book.  I  will  now  show  that  in 
an  analogous  way  Dante  makes  use  of  the  initial  positions 
of  his  cantos.  I  am  unable,  however,  to  find  a  continuous 
reading  through  all  the  cantos.  Imagine  that  the  first  lines 
of  the  cantos  are  written  one  under  the  other  like  the  lines 
of  a  poem.  The  first  lines  of  the  first  four  cantos  of  Inferno^ 
written  thus  together,  appear  as  follows: 

Inf.     i.  I.  Nel  mezzo  del  cammin  di  nostra  vita 

Inf.    ii.  I.  Lo  giorno  se  n'andava,  e  I'aer  bruno 

Inf.  iii.  I.  Per  me  si  va  nella  citta  dolente 

Inf.  iv.  I.  Ruppemi  I'alto  sonno  nella  testa 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


1. 

nel 

ii. 

LO 

iii. 

P 

iv. 

RU 

Read:  prunello 

454      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


This  acrostic  prunello,  as  the  evil  or  fruitless  tree,  stands 
thus  at  the  beginning  oi  Inferno.  Compare  the  thorn  symbol- 
ism of  the  New  Testament,  and  also  pruno^  Inf.  xiii.  32. 

Consider  now  in  connection  with  this  acrostic  prunello 
the  first  lines  of  the  first  thirteen  cantos  of  Inferno: 


Inf. 
Inf. 
Inf. 
Inf. 
Inf. 
Inf. 
Inf. 
Inf.  viii. 
Inf.  ix. 
Inf.  X. 
Inf.  xi. 
Inf.  xii. 
Inf.  xiii. 


1 

ii 
iv 

V 

vi 
vii 


Nel  mezzo  del  cammin  di  nostra  vita 
Lo  giorno  se  n'andava,  e  I'aer  bruno 
Per  me  si  va  nella  citta  dolente 
Ruppemi  I'alto  sonno  nella  testa 
Cos!  discesi  del  cerchio  primaio 
Al  tornar  della  mente,  che  si  chiuse 
Pape  Satan,  pape  Satan  aleppe 
lo  dico  seguitando,  ch'assai  prima 
Quel  color  che  vilta  di  fuor  mi  pinse 
Ora  sen  va  per  un  secreto  calle 
In  su  r  estremita  d'  un'  alta  ripa 
Era  lo  loco,  ove  a  scender  la  riva 
Non  era  ancor  di  la  Nesso  arrivato 


Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


1. 
ii. 
iii. 
iv. 

V. 

vi. 
vii. 


NEL 
LO 

p 

RU 
C 

AL   T 
P 


VUl. 

10   D 

ix. 

QU 

X. 

0 

xi. 

I 

xii. 

E 

xiii. 

NO 

Read:  copio  qui  lo  prunello.  dante 

This  acrostic  is  appropriate  to  the  symbolism  of  Inferno, 
in  which  Dante  "copies  the  thorn-tree"  in  the  sense  that  he 
represents  himself  as  leading  the  evil  life  of  which  the  thorn- 
tree  is  the  symbol.  Notice  that  the  acrostic  is  read  on  the  first 
lines  of  thirteen  cantos.  The  symbolism  of  the  number  of 
thirteen  as  unlucky  or  evil  is  appropriate  to  the  meaning  of 
the  acrostic.  Notice,  moreover,  that  it  is  in  the  thirteenth 
canto,  on  which  the  acrostic  ends,  that  the.  pruno,  suggesting 
the  prunello  of  the  acrostic,  is  mentioned. 

Following  are  the  first  lines  of  the  last  three  cantos  of 
Inferno: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  455 

InJ.    xxxii.  I.      S'io  avessi  le  rime  aspre  e  chiocce 
Inf.  xxxiii.  I.     La  bocca  sollevo  dal  fiero  pasto 
Inf.  xxxiv.  I.     Vexilla  Regis  prodeunt  inferni 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


XXXll. 

SI 

xxxiii. 

LA 

xxxiv. 

VE 

Read:  si  vela 

Following  are  the  first  lines  of  the  last   two  cantos  of 
Purgatorio: 

Purg.    xxxii.  I.     Tanto  eran  gli  occhi  miei  fissi  ed  attenti 
Purg.  xxxiii.  I.      Deus,  venerunt  gentes,  alternando 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 

xxxii.  TAN 

xxxiii.       DE 

Read:  dante 

Following  are  the  first  lines  of  the  first  four  cantos  of 
Paradiso: 

Par.     i.  I.  La  gloria  di  colui  che  tutto  move 

Par.   ii.  I.  O  voi  che  siete  in  piccioletta  barca 

Par.  ili.  i.  Quel  sol,  che  pria  d'amor  mi  scaldo  il  petto 

Par.  iv.  I.  Intra  due  cibi,  distanti  e  moventi 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 

i.        LA 
■  ii.       o  vo 

iii.       QUE 

iv.  INTRA    D 

Read:  lavoro  qui  dante 

There  is  another  reading  on  the  marginal  letters,  thus: 

i.  L 

ii.  o 

iii.  Qu 

iv.  I 

Read:  loqui 


4S6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

Following  are  the  first  lines  of  cantos  xxvi  to  xxviii  of 
Paradiso: 

Par.  xxvi,  i.  Mentr'io  dubbiava  per  lo  viso  spento 
Par.  xxvii.  i.  Al  Padre,  al  Figlio,  alio  Spirito  Santo 
Par.  xxviii.  I.      Poscia  che  contra  alia  vita  presente 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


XXVI. 

ME 

xxvii. 

A 

xxviii. 

PC 

Read: 

POEMA 

Following  are  the  first  lines  of  cantos  xxiv  to  xxix  of 
Paradiso : 


Par.  xxiv.  i 
Par.  XXV.  I 
Par.  xxvi.  i 
Par.  xxvii.  i 
Par.  xxviii.  i 
Par.     xxix.  i 


O  sodalizio  eletto  alia  gran  cena 
Se  mai  continga  che  il  poema  sacro 
Mentr'  io  dubbiava  per  lo  viso  spento 
Al  Padre,  al  Figlio,  alio  Spirito  Santo 
Poscia  che  contra  alia  vita  presente 
Quando  ambedue  i  figli  di  Latona 


Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


XXIV. 

o 

XXV. 

SE    MAI 

xxvi. 

MENT 

xxvii. 

AL    PA 

xxviii. 

PC 

xxix. 

QUANDO    A 

Read:  qui  dante  posa  mano  al  poema 

Following  are  the  first  lines  of  the  last  four  cantos  of 
Paradiso: 

Par.      XXX.  I.  Forse  sei  milia  miglia  di  lontano 

Par.     xxxi.  i.  In  forma  dunque  di  Candida  rosa 

Par.   xxxii.  i.  AfFetto  al  suo  piacer  quel  contemplante 

Par.  xxxiii.  i.  Vergine  Madre,  figlia  del  tuo  Figlio 

Consider  the  following  marginal  letters  of  these  lines: 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  457 


XXX. 

F 

xxxi. 

IN 

xxxii. 

A 

xxxiii. 

VE 

FIN.    AVE 

Read; 

These  last  two  readings  on  the  first  lines  of  the  last  cantos 
of  the  Divina  Commedia  should  be  considered  together: 

DANTE  POSA  QUI  MANO  AL  POEMA.  FIN.  AVE. 

Or  it  may  be  that  the  readings  on  the  first  lines  of  the 
last  cantos  of  the  three  canticles  should  be  read  together 

thus:  SI  VELA  DANTE.   FIN.  AVE. 

Some  of  the  cryptograms  which  I  have  shown  in  the 
present  chapter  are  so  apparent  that  there  can  be  no  question 
of  the  validity  of  the  reading.  Others  are  obscure,  and  the 
reading  is  problematic.  But  I  have  presented  them  for  two 
reasons,  first,  because  as  a  group  they  show  indications  of 
intention,  and  second,  because  as  a  group  they  point  to  a 
cryptographic  plan  in  the  Divina  Commedia  more  inclusive 
than  I  have  been  able  to  prove.  Part  of  my  purpose,  therefore, 
in  showing  cryptic  readings  of  which  I  am  not  certain,  is  to 
suggest  the  direction  which  should  be  followed  in  further 
investigations  of  Dante's  cryptography. 


PROBLEMS  OF  MEANING 

Turning  now  from  the  problems  of  cryptography  to  the 
problems  of  meaning,  let  me  in  conclusion  enumerate  the 
formal  elements  of  which  the  Divina  Commedia  is  composed 
and  indicate  the  opportunities  which  these  elements  offer  for 
further  analysis. 

The  Divina  Commedia  of  Dante  Aldighiero  is  an  unsur- 
passed, if  not  the  supreme,  synthesis  of  human  thought.  It 
condenses  into  a  unit  of  almost  unbelievable  complexity  the 
universe  of  knowledge  as  it  existed  in  Dante's  time.  It  is  a 
compendium  of  the  political,  artistic,  philosophical,  and 
religious  history  of  the  world. 


458      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

But  the  historical  element  in  the  Divina  Commedia  is  by 
no  means  paramount.  As  Dante  himself  declares,  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  an  allegory,  a  kind  of  poetical  creation  which, 
by  his  own  definition,  expresses,  along  with  a  literal  or 
historical  meaning,  a  non-historical  or  allegorical  meaning. 

Now  as  an  allegory  the  Divina  Commedia  has  a  peculiar 
feature  which  it  shares  with  many  other  allegories,  but  not 
with  all.  It  purports  to  be  the  record  of  a  dream.  It  is  called  a 
vision  by  Dante  himself,  and  in  addition  to  its  dream  form  as 
a  whole,  it  contains  within  itself  a  number  of  other  dreams 
and  many  observations  as  to  the  meaning  of  dreams.  It  is 
obvious,  therefore,  that  Dante  attaches  an  importance  to 
dreams  as  a  mode  of  expression,  and  that  in  casting  the 
Divina  Commedia  in  the  form  of  a  dream  he  may  be  either 
recording  some  actual  dream-material  or  else  attempting  to 
make  the  dream-poem  express  in  form  and  in  meaning  what 
he  understands  of  the  form  and  meaning  of  dreams  in  general. 

The  main  action  of  the  Divina  Commedia,  which,  as  we 
have  now  seen,  is  an  allegory  cast  in  the  form  of  a  dream  and 
embodying  an  important  element  of  history,  is  a  journey 
which  Dante,  as  the  author,  tells  of  making  while  he  is  still 
alive  through  the  post-mortem  regions  of  Hell,  Purgatory, 
and  Paradise.  The  ideaof  the  journey  of  a  living  man  through 
the  abodes  of  the  dead  is  fundamental  in  the  Divina  Com- 
media, but  it  is  not,  of  course,  original  with  Dante.  It  appears, 
indeed,  in  countless  forms  in  the  mythologies  of  all  peoples. 
Among  the  heroes  of  classical  mythology  who  descended  alive 
to  the  underworld  of  the  dead  are  Odysseus,  ^Eneas,  Theseus, 
and  Hercules;  and  Ganymede  was  taken  alive  to  Heaven.  In 
Christian  belief  St.  Paul  was  "caught  up  to  the  third 
heaven,"  and  it  is  recorded  of  Christ,  in  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
that  he  descended  into  Hell  after  the  crucifixion  and  after 
three  days  ascended  into  Heaven.  All  these  instances  are 
expressly  cited  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  They  set,  so  to  speak, 
the  example  for  Dante's  journey  and  prove  that  Dante 
consciously  adapted  an  ancient  myth  for  the  main  action  of 
his  poem. 

There  are  thus,  according  to  the  foregoing  analysis,  four 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  459 

principal  elements  in  the  Divina  Commedia:  history,  allegory, 
dream,  and  myth.  Of  these  four  elements  the  historical  is  the 
one  that  has  been  most  adequately  studied  in  the  past, 
though  the  failure  of  the  historians  to  identify  correctly 
Beatrice,  the  dxv,  and  the  Veltro  has  led  to  a  complete  mis- 
understanding of  the  entire  poem.  If  the  identifications  of 
these  characters  which  I  have  made  in  the  preceding  pages  be 
accepted,  the  chief  historical  difficulties  of  the  poem  are 
solved. 

The  remaining  three  elements  into  which  the  Divina 
Commedia  may  be  analyzed,  allegory,  dream,  and  myth, 
however  they  differ  from  each  other,  have  an  important 
feature  in  common.  In  contrast  with  history,  which  is  limited 
to  expressing  its  single  literal  meaning,  allegory,  dream,  and 
myth  are  capable  respectively  of  expressing  more  than  one 
meaning  at  once. 

In  regard  to  the  duplicities  of  allegory  the  reader  of  Dante 
is  left  in  no  doubt;  for  the  letter  to  Can  Grande  and  the 
Convivio  contain  two  profound  definitions  of  allegory  in 
which  its  multiple  meanings  are  precisely  distinguished. 

The  duplicity  of  dreams  as  having  a  rational  as  well  as 
their  obviously  irrational  meaning  has  been  believed  from 
early  antiquity,  and  this  belief  is  confirmed  by  the  modern 
study  of  dreams. 

The  rational  as  well  as  the  irrational  meaning  of  myths 
was  recognized  in  antiquity,  and  is  likewise  confirmed  by 
modern  scholarship.  In  popular  usage,  indeed,  the  mythical 
is  per  se  untrue,  unreal.  But  the  popular  view  of  the  mythical 
is  obviously  in  contradiction  to  the  recognized  character  of 
myths  as  primitive  theories  of  cosmogony.  However  false  the 
theories  thus  expressed  may  appear  in  the  light  of  modern 
science,  they  cannot  on  that  account  be  denied  the  possession 
of  some  sort  of  rational  meaning.  In  its  original  sense,  a  myth 
is  merely  a  something  said;  and  the  something  said  contrasts 
with  a  something  done  in  a  primitive  ceremony  of  a  magical 
character,  a  ceremony  performed  with  the  object  of  bringing 
about  a  change  in  nature  similar  to  the  change  indicated  in 
symbolic  form  by  the  words  and  the  action.  In  other  terms, 


46o      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF   DANTE 

the  myth  was  originally  the  spoken  part  of  a  drama  enacted 
for  a  practical  purpose;  and  with  the  gradual  disappearance  of 
the  drama  itself  the  spoken  part  survived  in  narrative  form. 

Two  fundamental  errors  are  to  be  found,  I  believe,  in  much 
of  the  modern  study  of  myths.  The  first  is  the  error  that  the 
symbolism  of  ancient  myths  is  always  unconscious  symbol- 
ism, analogous  to  the  symbolism  of  dreams.  This  error  is 
based  on  the  failure  to  recognize  that  the  most  archaic  forms 
of  myth,  which  must  indeed  have  originated  unconsciously  in 
dream-like  phantasies,  were  reshaped  at  a  very  early  period 
by  highly  self-conscious  and  sophisticated  priests  and  poets, 
such  as  the  Hebrew  priests  in  the  period  of  the  Babylonian 
Captivity  and  the  poets  of  the  Homeric  period  and  the  great 
Greek  dramatists.  In  this  reshaping  of  the  archaic  material 
the  symbolism  which  we  are  at  last  beginning  to  recognize 
must  have  been  a  self-conscious  expression  of  the  priests  and 
poets  who  used  it. 

The  second  error  which  appears  in  modern  myth  inter- 
pretation is  the  error  of  supposing  that  the  ancient  myth- 
makers  were  personifying,  in  the  so-called  sun  myths  and 
vegetation  myths,  the  annual  or  diurnal  progress  of  the  sun 
or  the  recurrence  of  crops.  Man,  and  especially  primitive 
man,  is  too  egocentric  to  be  so  exclusively  preoccupied  with 
the  life  of  a  nature  that  is  not  his  own.  In  the  last  analysis 
the  so-called  sun  and  vegetation  myths  must  be  understood 
to  be  purely  autobiographical^  borrowing  from  the  recurrent 
life  of  the  sun  and  the  crops  merely  the  symbols  of  the  manner 
in  which  man  itnagines  that  he  himself  may  survive.  The  so- 
called  sun  and  vegetation  myths  must  all  be  interpreted, 
therefore,  as  symbolizing,  not  the  rebirth  of  the  sun  or  the 
crops,  but  the  rebirth  of  man. 

In  view  of  the  rational,  as  well  as  of  the  irrational,  meaning 
that  must  thus  be  recognized  in  allegory,  dream,  and  myth, 
it  appears  that  there  is  needed  for  the  interpretation  of  the 
Divina  Commedia^  first,  a  serious  analysis  of  Dante's  own 
definition  of  allegory,  a  study  of  this  definition,  indeed,  in  the 
light  of  the  Aquinian  account  of  knowledge;  and,  second,  a 
study  of  the  dream  and  myth  elements  of  the  poem  in  the 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  461 

light  of  the  modern  analysis  of  dreams  and  myths  in  general. 
No  adequate  analysis  of  Dante's  definition  of  allegory  has 
yet,  it  seems  to  me,  appeared;  nor  has  any  attempt,  so  far  as 
I  know,  been  made  to  interpret  the  poem  as  a  dream  and 
as  a  myth. 

Moreover,  as  allegory,  as  dream,  and  as  myth,  the  poem 
must  be  completely  reexamined  in  the  light  of  the  identifica- 
tion of  Beatrice  with  Bella  and  of  the  dxv  and  the  Veltro 
with  Dante. 

Limited  as  I  have  been  in  the  present  volume  by  the 
primary  purpose  of  presenting  the  cryptography  of  the 
Divina  Commedia^  I  have  postponed  to  a  study  now  in 
preparation,  The  Symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  the 
presentation  of  my  own  views  of  the  Divina  Commedia  as 
allegory,  dream,  and  myth. 

But  as  these  views  are  implicit  in  the  partial  interpretation 
of  the  poem  as  a  whole  which  I  have  made  already,  I  wish,  in 
conclusion,  to  define  them  as  briefly  as  possible. 

The  analysis  that  I  propose  to  make  of  the  Divina  Com- 
media as  an  allegory  will  show  that  the  various  ways  in  which 
an  allegory  is  to  be  understood  must  correspond  to  the 
various  ways  we  have  of  understanding.  In  other  words,  the 
four  meanings  which  Dante  declares  that  the  Divina  Com- 
media^ as  an  allegory,  expresses,  correspond  to  the  four  modes 
of  cognition.  The  literal  meaning  corresponds  to  sensation; 
the  allegorical  meaning  to  perception;  the  moral  meaning  to 
conception;  and  the  anagogical  or  symbolical  meaning  to  the 
mode  of  cognition  which  appears  in  the  Aquinian  account  of 
knowledge  as  revelation^  and  in  other  accounts  as  intuition, 
apperception  and  interpretation.'^  This  view  of  the  multiple 
meanings  of  allegory  will  lead  to  a  new  definition  of  symbol- 
ism, according  to  which  allegory  is  based  on  the  use  of  things 
as  signs  of  other  things  and  symbolism  is  based  on  the  use  of 
things  as  signs  of  mind  or  mental  states.  This  fundamental 
distinction  between  allegory  and  symbolism,  entailed  in  the 
fundamental  distinction  between  the  four  meanings  of  alle- 
gory as  based  on  the  four  modes  of  cognition,  will  make  it 
possible  to  analyse  with  precision  the  four  distinct  and  con 

*See  J.  Royce:  The  Problem  of  Christianity. 


462       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

sistent   meanings   which    Dante   actually   expresses   in    the 
Divina  Commedia. 

In  my  analysis  of  the  Divina  Commedia  as  dream  I  oppose 
to  the  Freudian  view  of  dreams  as  symbolizing  the  sexual  life 
in  its  literal  aspects  my  view  that  the  sexual  life  appears  in 
dreams  as  itself  the  symbol  of  something  else — as  the  symbol, 
indeed,  oi  t\\t  persotiified  convict  of  the  intellect,  emotion,  and 
will  of  the  dreamer  himself  as  an  individual.  This  view  of  the 
sex  symbolism  of  dreams  in  general  will  illuminate  the  pro- 
founder  implications  of  the  sex  symbolism  of  the  Divina 
Commedia. 

I  also  dissent  from  the  Freudian  view  of  dreams  as  wish- 
fulfillments.  This  view  involves  the  Freudians  in  the  difficulty 
of  explaining  as  wish-fulfillments  dreams  that  have  every 
appearance  oi failing  to  fulfill  wishes;  and  to  help  themselves 
out  of  this  difficulty  they  have  invented  a  quite  too  gullible 
"censor."  The  wish  is  invariably  fulfilled,  according  to  the 
Freudian  view,  in  spite  of  the  censor,  who  strives  to  thwart 
the  wish.  But  how  can  it  be  shown  that  the  thwarting  power, 
whatever  it  is,  is  always  evaded  or  defeated,  and  that  the  wish 
is  always  fulfilled  in  spite  of  it  ?  In  dreaming,  as  in  any  other 
activity,  asleep  or  awake,  there  is  doubtless  a  wish  that 
strives  to  fulfill  itself;  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  evidence  of 
dreams  themselves  to  warrant  the  belief  that  the  striving  to 
fulfill  a  wish  is  any  oftener,  or  in  any  other  way,  successful  in 
dreaming  than  it  is  in  waking  life.  Dreams  have  no  such  one 
hundred  per  cent  success  in  fulfilling  the  wishes  implied  in  the 
dream  activity.  By  virtue  of  their  very  liability  to  failure 
dreams  are  more  lifelike  than  the  Freudians  represent  them 
to  be,  and  they  are  accordingly  better  fitted  to  the  use  which 
Dante  makes  of  the  dream-form  as  the  form  of  life. 

I  have  been  obliged,  in  advance  of  my  forthcoming  study, 
to  treat  in  some  detail  of  the  mythical  element  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  the  myth  of  the  journey  of  a  living  person  through 
the  abodes  of  the  dead.  But  the  interpretation  of  the  myth 
as  I  have  expressed  it  in  the  present  volume  remains,  as  I 
wish  to  say  with  all  possible  emphasis,  incomplete. 

Our  examination  of  the  myth  has  resulted,  so  far,  in  the 


PROBLEMATIC   ASPECTS  463 

discovery  that  it  implies  a  parallel  between  the  structure  of 
the  universe  and  the  structure  of  the  human  body;  the 
universe  is  a  womb  in  which  man  is  at  once  and  in  eternal 
repetition  the  child  that  is  expelled  from  it,  the  seed  that 
reenters  it,  and  the  foetus  that  remains  in  it.  But  the  parallel 
between  the  universe  and  the  human  body  is  only  the  shell 
of  the  meaning  of  the  myth;  it  implies,  as  its  fundamental 
meaning,  a  parallel  between  the  universe  and  the  human 
mind,  a  psycho-physical  parallelism  which  I  will  discuss  in 
The  Symbolism  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  In  the  light  of  this 
psycho-physical  parallelism  the  relation  which  I  have  been 
obliged,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  to  call  incestuous  in  the 
present  volume  will  appear  to  be  a  special  relation  between 
the  three  faculties  of  the  mind,  will,  intellect,  and  emotion, 
which  are  to  be  understood  as  dramatized,  in  the  myths  of 
rebirth,  as  Father,  Son,  and  Mother  in  conflict  and  in  union. 
An  identical  use  of  th-t family  as  a  symbol  of  the  individual 
appears  in  the  Christian  account  of  the  divine  Trinity,  in 
which  the  Three  Persons  correspond  on  the  one  hand  to 
Father,  Son,  and  Mother  and  on  the  other  hand  to  the  three 
faculties  of  the  human  individual,  will,  intellect,  and  emotion. 
The  Trinity  as  a  family  is  unmistakably  implied  in  the  early 
Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,  where  the  Holy  Ghost  is  represented 
as  saying  to  Christ  at  the  time  of  the  baptism:  "Thou  art  my 
first-born  son;"  and  where  Christ  Himself  is  represented  as 
saying  in  the  account  of  the  temptation:  "My  mother,  the 
Holy  Spirit,  lately  took  me  by  one  of  my  hairs  and  carried  me 
to  the  great  mountain  Tabor."  Further  support  for  the 
maternal  character  of  the  Holy  Ghost  may  be  found  in  L.  L. 
Paine's  "The  Ethnic  Trinities."  That  the  Trinity,  which  was 
recognized  as  a  family,  was  likewise  recognized  as  correspond- 
ing to  the  human  individual  appears  in  the  work  on  the 
Trinity  by  St.  Augustine,  where  a  comparison  is  made  be- 
tween God  as  a  Trinity  and  man  as  having  a  trinity  of 
faculties.  The  same  correspondences  between  the  Trinity  and 
the  human  family  and  the  human  individual  are  expressed  by 
Dante,  and  it  is  essential  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  that  these  correspondences  be  recognized  as  the 


464      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF   DANTE 

means  by  which  Dante  expresses,  primarily,  the  identifi- 
cation of  himself  with  God,  and  so,  in  general,  the  divine,  or 
universal,  nature  of  man. 


FINIS. 


LIST  OF  CRYPTOGRAMS 


LIST  OF  CRYPTOGRAMS 

Following  the  cryptograms  here  listed  are  bracketed  letters 
which  indicate  the  classifications  to  which  the  cryptograms  belong. 
[Ac]  means  Acrostic;  [An]  Anagram;  [C]  Cabala;  [I  S]  Interior 
Sequence;  [L  S]  Letter  Sequence;  [P]  Pun;  [S  C]  String  Cipher; 
[Sep  L]  Play  on  Separate  Letters;  [T]  Telestic. 

DIVINA  COMMEDIA 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Inf.  i. 

1-4    Nemica  [Ac] 24-25,31-34,37-39,396-397 

1-9    Dante  [Ac]     104-105 

1-12    Nati  [Ac] 24-25,31-34,37-39,103,396-397 

1-12    r  NoN  So  Ben  Ir.  Dante  [Ac] 103-104 

3-7    Dante  [IS] 105 

7-1 1     Dante  [IS] 105 

9-12    Taci  D  [Ac]                104 

10-12    Taci  [Ac] 104 

31-36    lo  Dante  [IS] 184 

31-42    Mente  [Ac] 183-184 

31-42    Ecco  Quasi  Me,  Dante  [Ac] 183-184 

47-49    Bella  [IS] 186-187 

47-50    Bella  [IS] 186-187 

49-52    Madre  [IS] 186-187 

51-54    Madre  [IS] 186-187 

55-66    "lo  Vidi"QuaMe,  Dante  [Ac] 141 

58-61     Bella  [IS] 187 

67-69    Mare  [Ac] 191 

67-69    Rem  [Ac] 191 

67-69    Nome  [Ac] 191 

67-87    Maro  Rinato  Poeta  [Ac] 189-190 

70-74    Dante  [IS] 190 

71     Roma  (Maro)  (Amor)  [An]     192-193 

74    Dante  [L  S] 191 

[467] 


468     THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

REFERENCE         CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

86-89    Bella  [IS] 187 

88-99    Cave  [Ac] 186 

97-101     Matre  [IS] 187-188 

100-104    Matre  [IS] 187-188 

loi-ios     Matre  [IS] 187-188 

103-106    Dante  [IS] 187-188 

100-102     Me,  Veltro  [Ac] 171-172 

100-102     515  [C]      171-172 

100-114    Peremas  Qui  Poema.    Ecco  Dante,  Quasi  Veltro 

IN  Feltro  [Ac] 171-173 

101-105    T  :  Dante  [IS] 175 

106-108     CiTA  Dante  [Ac] 174 

111-114    Madre  [IS] 188 

127-133     Capo  Qui.    Ed  lo  [Ac]     151 

127-136    Capo  EscE  Qui.    Dante  [Ac]      151-152 

127-136    Indica  Ed  Io  [Ac] 40-41 

1-136  Mente  (Ecco  Quasi  Me,  Dante)  Cogita  Nel 
PoEMA  (or  GuARDA  Me,  Dante — Nati — Copio 
Mente).  Loque  Questa  Mente  Quando  Poeta 
Maro  Qui  Mi  Riceve,  Dante.     Questo  Indica 

OvE  E  Calle  [Ac]     422-425 

Inj.  ii. 

1-2    LoTo  [Ac] 41-42 

I-I2    L'Omo  Io  [Ac] 41-42,  141-142 

3-8    Io  Era  Dante  [T] 141-143 

7-9     Omo  Qui  [Ac] 141-142 

50-54    Madre  [IS] 355 

53-55     Bella  [IS] 355 

53     Bella  [P] 355 

58-60    Deo  [Ac] 193-194 

58-69    O  Leo  [Ac] 193-194 

61-63     Snella  [Ac] 193-195 

67-69    Leo  [Ac] 193-194 

68-71     Matre  [IS] 355-356 

71-75     Madre  [IS] 355-35^ 

70-72     Via  [Ac] 355-35^ 

91-94    Madre  [IS] 356 

101-103     Dante  [IS] 356 

102-105     Matre  [IS] 356 

Inf.  Hi. 

1-9    Per  Me  Si  Va,  Per  Me  Si  Va,  Per  Me   Si   Va. 

Dante  Si  Fa  Suo  Sigillo  [Ac] 224-225 

7     Dante  [S  C] 70 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS 


469 


REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Inf.  iv. 

1-12  Vero  [Ac] 176 

1-12  T:Velor  [Ac] 176-177 

46-69  NoN  Riusci  Dante  ?  [Ac] 100 

55-66  Dante  [Ac]     loo-ioi 

56-60  Mira  Dant  [Ac] loi 

57  Dante  [S  C] 72 

118-132  Copio  515  [Ac  and  C] I43-I44 

121-129  515  [C]     445 

1 21-129  Peremas  Vel.    Ecco  Qui  Dante  Colla  Sua  Matre 

Bella  [Ac] 445-446 

130-144  Sei  Tu,  O  Dante  Aldighiero  (Dante  Aldighiero, 

Tu  Sei  Zero)  [Ac] 476-478 

133-15 1  Dante  E  Elios  [Ac] 144-145 

134  Quivi  515  [C] 447 

137  Dante  [S  C] 7i>447 

140-145  lo  Vi,  Dante  [Ac] 448 

Inf.  V. 

34-54  Mi  Celo  Qui.    Dante  [Ac] 416 

115-142  Peremas  Qui.   Mi  Celo  Nel  Poema.    Dante  [Ac]  406 

Inf.  vi. 

64-75  II  Poeta  Guido  [Ac] 415-416 

64-75  II  Poeta  Vi  Noma  Essi:  Guido  E  Dante  [Ac]  .    .    .  415-416 

76-115  Peremas  Qui  Vel.  Feci  Qui  Guido  E  Dante  [Ac]    .  415 

85-87  Dante,  Se'  Qui  [Ac]     69-70 

Inf.  vii. 

I  Dante,  Dante,  Aleppe  (or  Christ)  [Ac] 303-305 

I  Pene,  Pene  [T] 306 

1-4  Pace  D  [Ac] 305 

Inf.  viii. 

7  Maro  [P] 192 

42-45  Bella  [IS] 324 

45-48  Madre  [IS] 324 

82-93  Savio  [Ac] 43-44 

83  Dante  [S  C] 72 

85-87  Vedi  [Ac] 44 

87  Dante  [S  C] 72 

94-108  Poema:  Dante  [Ac] 77-79 

105  Dante  [L  S] 79 


470      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

REFERENCE         CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Inf.  ix. 

82-84  Me,  D..A..  [Ac] 236 

82-84  S15  [C]     ■  .  23s 

88-90  Vela  [Ac] 235 

88-90  51S  [C]     235 

Inf.  X. 

1-3  LoTO  [Ac] 287-288 

1-12  O  Leo  [Ac] 287-288 

i-iS  O  Sole  [Ac] 287 

22-33  Sole  [Ac] 288 

39  Dante  [S  C] 73 

127-136  L'AcQUA  [Ac] 301-302 

Inf.  xi. 

61-72  PoEMA  (with  Ed  Io)  [Ac] 150-151 

106  Dante  [S  C] 72 

Inf.  xii. 

75  Dante  [S  C] 72 

Inf.  xiii. 

1-5  Dante  [IS] 94 

9-83  Matre  [IS] 234 

Inf.  xiv. 

94-105  NuDRi  [Ac] 329 

94-105  In  Una  Madre  [Ac] 329 

Inf.  XV. 

zz--iZ  Cela  Ed  Id  [Ac] 148 

Inf.  xvi. 

43-51  Peremas  [Ac] 277-278 

43-54  Spem  [Ac] 277 

43-54  Dante  [Ac]      277-278 

88-90  Punto  [Ac] 52 

94-102  Fanno  Via  Per  Bella  [Ac] 450 

106-114  Pio  [Ac] 218-219 

121-136  EscE  Maschio  [Ac] 217-218 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  471 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Inf.  xvii. 

I-I2    Sequela  [Ac] 64 

11-12     Dante  [Ac]     64 

86    Dante  [S  C] 73 

Inf.  xviii. 

33     Dante  [S  C] 73 

34-54    Peremas  Qui  Dante  [Ac] 278-279 

127-136    Taide  [Ac] 59-60 

127-136    Dante  Qui  [Ac]     59-60 

130    Dante  [S  C] 71 

Inf.  XX. 

97-1 II     Peremas  [Ac] 276-277,412 

97-1 II     Ed  lo  Sperma  [Ac] , 277 

100-114    IVIadre,  Vi  Sei  [Ac] 411 

112-114    Bella  [Ac] 411-412 

Inf.  xxi. 

1-12    Ecco  Che  Dante  Si  Rivela  Qui  Con  Bella  [Ac]   .    .  412-413 

loi     Dante  [SC] 73 

Inf.  xxii. 

105    Dante  [S  C] 72 

Inf.  xxiii. 

67-78    PoEMA,  Ecco  Vi  Dante  [Ac] 86-87 

76-78    Vedi  [Ac] 86-87 

145-148    lo,  Dante  [Ac] 70 

148     Dante  [S  C] 70 

Inf.  xxiv. 

21     Dante  [S  C] 73 

43-54    Sole  [Ac] 289 

70-84    lo  Dante  [Ac] 70-80 

91-111     Ecco  Ed!    Ecco  Dante!  [Ac]     167-168 

91-111     515  [C]     169-170 

100    lo  [Sep  L] 169 

109-111     E  ]VIe  [Ac] 170 


472   THE  CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF  DANTE 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Inf.  XXV. 

13-24     Peremas  (Spem)  [Ac] 275-276 

28-36    Nome  Ed  [Ac] 152-153 

75     Dante  [Ac] 73 


/«/.  xxvi 

19-24  Peremas  Qui  [Ac] 140 

19-24  lo  ViDi  [T] 140 

71-81  Pleo  [Ac] 299 

85-96  Limne  [Ac] 300 

95  Dante  [S  C] 73 

115  Dante  [S  C] 72 

117  Dante  [S  C] 72 


Inf.  xxviii. 

9    Dante  [S  C] 72 

141     Dante  [S  C] 73 

Inf.  XXX. 

jj    Dante  [S  C] 72 


Inf.  xxxi. 

67    IVTaria  [Ac] 245-246 

67    MiRA  A  Me  [Ac] 245-246 

67    Chiami  Mia  Bella  [T] 245-246 

67-78     Prece  [Ac] 245 

92     Dante  [S  C] 73 


Inf.  xxxiii. 

85-96    T:  Velor  [Ac]     .    .' ^77-^7^ 

Inf.  xxxiii. 

22-24    Qua  Bella  [Ac]     297 

46-57    Copio.    Ed  Io  [Ac] 296 

55-57     Come  Pene  [Ac] 297 

109-111     Grido  Dante  [Ac] 70 

133-157    EccoMi  Dante  [Ac] 416 

139-157    Ecco  Che  Dante  Si  Indica  Nel  Poema  [Ac]  ....  417-418 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  473 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Inf.  xxxiv. 

I     Vi  SiGNo:  Dante  [T] 90 

22     Feto  [L  S] 236-237 

22-24    Feto  [IS] 236-237 

22-26    Feto  Non  Vivo  [IS] 236-237 

34-60    Sole:  SoNO  Qui  Dante  [Ac] 213-214 

40-42     Sole  [Ac] 213-214 

43-45     Vel  [Ac] 213-214 

88-90    Eli  [Ac] 238 

88-96    Elios  [Ac] 238 

90-92     Pene  [IS] 238 

92-94    Pene  [IS] 238 

92-94    Pene  [IS] 238 

92     Penis  [An] • 237 

118-129    LoQui  Ed  [Ac] 154-155 

130-139     Sol:D...e  [Ac] 25-26,34 

134-139    Dante  Esce  Qui  [Ac] 26-27,  34 


Purg.  i. 

1-6  Poema.    Ecco  Dante  [Ac] 28,  400-403 

1-12  Peremas  (Spem)  [Ac] 27,  35,  223 

Purg.  a. 

1-12  Segno  [Ac] 44-45 

41-46  Taci  Dante  (or  Cita  Dante)  [Ac] 96 

43-45  Sei  Dante  [Ac] 96 

46  Gira.    Sei  Dante  [Ac] 96 

Purg.  in. 

76  Dante  [S  C] 71 

Purg.  iv. 

19-21  CoLMA  [Ac] 249 

31-33  Pene  [Ac] 249-250 

Purg.  vi. 

40-51  Velo  Dante  [Ac] 81-82 

46-49  Vel.    Sono  Qui.    Dante  [Ac] 81-82 

76-87  Acque  [Ac] 301-302 

106  Velo.    Ecco  Me,  Dante  [Ac] 63 


474      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

REFERENCE         CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Purg.  vii. 

4-9    Divo  [Ac] 451 

15-18    Omo  [Ac] 51-52 

82    Vel  a  Signare  [An] 427-428 

91-112    E  Claro  [Ac] 449 

91-112    Vi  Faro  Maria  [Ac]     449 

127-136    Ecco  Vi  NoM.    Mater  Bella  Eguaglia  Maria  [Ac]  451-452 

Purg.  viii. 

1-21     Dante  E  Qui  L'Eguale  [Ac] 418 

13     Tu  Celi  Dante  [Ac] 97-98 

19-21     Cerca  [Ac] 419 

22-33     Veli  [Ac] 419 

26    Dante  [S  C] ' 72 

58-69    Pleo  [Ac] 301 

90    Dante  [S  C] 71 

Purg.  ix. 

64-72    L'Amica  [Ac] 345 

63-81     Nove  [Ac] 345 

136-145    Taci  N  [Ac] 442 

140    Vel  Dante  [Ac] 442 

Purg.  X. 

35    Dante  [S  C] 71 

40    Eva  [An] 429 

44    Dante  [Ac]      429 

48    Dante  [S  C] 72 

74     Dante  [S  C] 73 

Purg.  xi. 

1-9    Velo  [Ac] 47-48 

44    Dante  [S  C] 72 

62     Dante  [S  C] 71 

Purg.  xti. 

25-28     Dante  [IS] 95 

25-28     Dante  [IS] 95 

26-29    Da  Da  Da  Da  [I  S] 95 

25-63     VoM  [Ac] 12-14 

no    Sei  Tu  [T] 433 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  475 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Purg.  xiii. 

145-154     MORTE  [Ac] 45 

80    Dante  [S  C] 73 

82     Dante  [S  C] 73 

Purg.  xiv. 

10-12     Pene  [Ac] 292 

16-27    "Ed  Io,"  Disse  [Ac]     146-147 

16-48    Factito  Per  Bella  [Ac] 45 1 

Purg.  XV. 

28-39    NoN  PosTO  N  [Ac] 433 

38     Sei  Dante  [T] 433 

98  Dante  [S  C] 73 

118-129    L'Omo  Ed  [Ac] 290 

1 18-129    Lome  [Ac] 290 

127-129    Sole  [Ac] 291 

Purg.  xvi. 

19     Segna  Div  (515)  [An  and  C] 432 

37-51     Peremas.    Ecco  Che  Poema  Vela  Dante  [Ac]  .    .    .  418 

67-84    Peremas  Vel  [Ac] 48-49 

96    Dante  [S  C] 73 

Purg.  xvii. 

133-139     L'Amata  [Ac] 47-48 

Purg.  xviii. 

1-4    PostoL'Anell:  "Ed  Io"  [Ac] 148-149 

1-12     Poema  (with  Ed  Io)  [Ac] 148-149 

Purg.  xix. 

38    Dante  [S  C] 73 

73     Amato  [T] 435 

99  Io  Saro  Dio  [T] 435 

Purg.  XX. 

1-3     Contra  [Ac] 50-51 

loo-iii     Dante  [Ac]     60-61 

Purg.  xxi. 

67-69  515  [C]    197 

68-101  51S  [C]  197 

82-102    Stazio  Col  Nome  Dante  [Ac] i97 


4/6      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

REFERENCE         CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 
Purg.  xxii. 

i-i8     Peremas  Qui  Vel.     Ecco  Che  Dante  Signa  Qui 

PoEMA  [Ac] 434 

2-6    Cela  D  [Ac] 434 

S-6    Ti,  Dante  [T] 433-434 

28-39    T:  Velor  [Ac]     . 178 

94-108     Dante  [Ac]     82-83 

109-111     Quivi  Dante  [Ac] 84 

Purg.  xxiii. 

10-12    Taci  Bella  [Ac] 429 

II     Od  AM  I,  Mia  Bella  [Ac] 428 

22-33     Omo  [Sep  L]     206 

33     E  Me  [P] 206 

Purg.  xxiv. 

49-54    Marco  Di  Dante  [Ac]     150 

Purg.  XXV. 

10-21     Dante  [Ac]     84-86 

13-15    Taci  d  [Ac] 84-86 

121     Ave.    Sei  Dante  [T] 435-436 

Purg.  xxvi. 

103-114    PoEMA.    Ed  lo  [Ac] 149 

140-147    Quasi  Vece  Arnaut,  Nomo  Qui  Bella  [Ac]  ....  439 

140    Dante,  Man  [An]      ' 439 

Purg.  xxvii. 

8     lo  Dante  [T] 98-99 

58    Reciti:  Sei  Dante  [T]     428 

97    Bella  [P] 363-364 

97      GlOVANNA  [P] 368 

100-114    Peremas  Qui  Vel.    Dante  Si  Cela  Con  Bella    in 

Poema  [Ac] 409 

Purg.  xxviii. 

39-43     Madre  Bella  [IS] 367 

48-51     Madre  [IS] 367 

64-75     Bella  E  Vista  [Ac] 364-365 

76-87    Velo  Maria  [Ac] 365-366 

80    Celasti  De  [An] 444 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  477 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

Purg.  xxix. 

3     Amati  [T] 435 

16-24    E  Me  [Ac] 65-66 

16-22    E  Me,  Dante  [Ac] 65-66 

23-24     Per  Mi  [Ac] 65-66 

1-154    Peremas  Qui  Poema.    Eccomi,    Dante  Aldighiero. 
SoNO  Cosi  Velato  Qui  Con  Bella.    Poema :  Dante 

Lo  SiGNA.    Poema  Dante  Fello  Qui  [Ac]  ....  425-426 

Purg.  XXX. 

II     DisvELA  Bella  [Ac] 439-44° 

17     Savio  Dante  [Ac] 439-44° 

11-17    Savio  Dante  Si  Vela  Con  Bella  [Ac] 440 

19-21     Veli,  Dante,  Bella  Qui  in  Poema  [Ac] 440-441 

55-66    Quasi  Vid  [Ac] 137-138 

62-63     Dante  Cessi  [An] 55-5^ 

73-75     Bella  [IS] 338 

73-75     Bella  [IS] 338 

73-84    Equaglia  Cosi  La  Madre  [Ac] 337 

83-84     Peremas  Poema.    Dante  [Ac] 443 

118-145     Peremas  Qui  Dante  [Ac] 419 

1-145     Peremas  Qui  Vel.    Ecco  Che  Dante  S'e  Fatto  Qui. 
Dante  Eguaglia  Qui  Virtu.    Peremas  Qui  Vel. 

Ecco  Come  Dante  Si  Noma  Qui  in  Poema  [Ac]  426-427 

Purg.  xxxi. 

57    Dante  [S  C] 72 

97-11 1     Bella  Si  Noma  Qui  [Ac] 366 

98     Peremas  [Ac] 384 

Purg.  xxxii. 

1-6     Tace  Da  [Ac] 409 

1-12     Poema  Qui  Cela  Dante  [Ac] 408-409 

61-75    QuiSiCopoLA  [Ac] 385 

1 51-160    Poema  Vela  Dant  [Ac]       5^-57 

Purg.  xxxiii. 

I     Vi  Segnerete  Dante  [Ac] 430-431 

10    Vedi  Nome  [Ac] 43^-432 

10     Nome,  515  [Ac  and  C] 43^-432 

II-I2     METT1ME515  [Ac  and  C] 432 

43     Dux,  515,  Dante  Aldighiero  [An  and  C] 115-128 

43-57    Mente  [Ac] 121-123 


478      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY    OF    DANTE 

reference      cryptogram  page 

43-57  Me  Dante  [Ac] 121-123 

43-57  Dante  Si  Finge  [Ac] 126 

43-45  Dante  [IS] 124 

43-45  Dante  [IS] 124 

47-49  Dante  [IS] 124 

52-56  Segna  Dante  [IS] 125 

52-63  515  [C]     211-212 

5S-S7  515  [Q      122 

69-90  Peremas  Vi  Ed  Io.    Peremas  Vi  Edi  Io  [Ac]     .    .    .   280-282 

100-145  Peremas  Qui  Vel.    Dante  Si  Cela  Con  Bella  in 

PoEMA  [Ac] 409 

119  IVIatelda  [An] 280-282 

136-145  Pio  RiMAsi  [Ac] 28-29,  35-36 

142-145  PuRi  Rii  [Ac] 28-29,  35-36 

Par.  i. 

1-3  In  Una  Perla  [Ac] 29-30,  36 

i-io  Vela  Pene  [Ac] 29-30,  36,  297 

8  Dant  [L  S] 75 

10  Io  Dante  [L  S] 75 

13-24  Io  Entro  [Ac] 64-65 

21-24  Segno  Dante  [Ac] 64-65 

85-87  Aprio  [Ac] 51 

88-90  Ecco  [Ac] 353 

107-110  Dante  [Ac]     69 

1 21-142  Cosi  Vela  Nome  Qui  [Ac] 339-34© 

133-136  Bella  [IS] 341 

135-139  IMaria  [IS] 341 

139-141  Madre  [IS] 341 

139  Vagli  Maria  [An] 340 

140-142  Dico  Qui  [Ac] 340-341 

Par.  it. 

1-4  Rotor.    Dante  [Ac] 62-63 

I-IO  VOLTO  [Ac] 62 

34-36  Pene:  Raggio  Di  Luce  [Ac] 258-259 

Par.  in. 

1-6  Quel  Sol  Di   Bella.    Provando  Edio  Me  Stesso 

[Ac] 410-411 

1-81  Peremas   Qui   Vel.     Dante   Significa   Qui   Come 

Bella  E  LAmata  Nel  Poema  [Ac] 410 

14  Dante  [S  C] 73 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  479 

reference      cryptogram  page 

19-33  Peremas  [Non]  [Ac]     416-417 

48  Bella  [P] 411 

121-130  Cela  Ed  [Ac] 153 

121  Eva  [An] 429 

Par.  iv. 

13-24  Dante  [Ac]     76-77 

25  El  Vel  [An] 444 

Par.  V. 

97-1 1 1  Pesce  [Ac] 260-261 

112-114  Peremas  [Ac] 262 

112-114  Seme  [Ac] 261-262 

136-139  Pene  Ed  [Ac] 259 

Par.  vi. 

61-72  Dante  Qui  [Ac]     61-62 

73  Dante  [S  C] 72 

124  Dante  [S  C] 73 

124-142  Poema.    Dante  Qui  [Ac] 200-201 

133-142  515  [C]     201-202 

Par.  vii. 

1-3  Peremas.    Suo  Figlio  Dante  Rischiara  Bella  [Ac]  438 

1-27  Peremas.    Ecco  Qui  Poema  [Ac] 282-283 

10-15  Dille,  Dille,  Dille  [C  and  P] 350351 

13  Indonna  [P] 351 

14  Be-Amor-Ice  [An]     347 

16-18  PoETA  [Ac] 282-284 

16-25  Spem  [Ac] 282-283 

16-25  Sperma  [Ac] 282-283 

27  Dante  [S  C] 73 

76-87  SoLvo  Ed  [Ac] 153-154 

132  Dante  [S  C] 73 

Par.  via. 

1-12  Peremas  (e  Sperma)  [Ac] 223-224 

35  Dante  [S  C] 73 

35-39  Dante  Vi  [Ac] 82-83 

100-103  Peremas  [Ac] 50 

112-148  Peremas  Velo.    Sono  Qui.    Dante  [Ac] 406-407 


48o      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

REFERENCE         CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 
Par.  ix. 

136-142  Amato  [Ac] 262-263 

136-142  SoNO  Qui  L'Amato  Di  Bella.    Dante  [Ac]    ....  262-263 

PaT.  X. 

i-S  Dante  Poet  [IS] 88 

i-io  L'Eguale  Qui  [Ac] 408 

1-21  Peremas  Qui  Velo.     Ecco  Che  Dante  S'e  Patto 

Qui  Nel  Poema  L'Eguale  Con  Dio  [Ac]     ....  407 

10-12  Dante  [Ac]     87-88 

22-24  SoRDi  [Ac] 408 

38  Dante  [S  C] 72 

43-46  Peremas  [Ac] 50 

52-54  Rise  [Ac] 51 

79  Dante  [S  C] 73 

99  Dant  Qui  [Ac] 449 

99  lo  Dante  [L  S] 449 

120  Dante  [S  C] 72 

146-148  Seme  [Ac] 292 

Par.  xi. 

1-27  Ecco  Qui  Poeta  [Ac] 415 

62  Pace  [Ac] 444 

62  Mater  [T] 444 

Par.  xii. 

93  Peremas  Vi  Dante  [T] 441 

96  Dante  [S  C] 71 

Par.  xiii. 

64-73  Sole  [Ac] 286 

73-81  Peremas  (Sperma)  (Spem)  [Ac] 286-287 

100  Peremas  Dio  [Ac]     441 

Par.  xiv. 

38  Dante  [S  C] 73 

70-81  Poema  [Ac] 44-45 

133-139  Peremas  [Ac] 284 

Par.  XV. 

19-24  Dante  [Ac] 68-69 

22-24  Dant  [T] 68-69 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  481 

reference      cryptogram  page 
28-30    Peremas  Vi.     Sono  Qui   In   Rebus  Tuo  Caccia- 

GUiDA  [Ac] 437 

34-45     Niche  [Ac] 437-438 

46-57     515,  EIlSei  [C  and  P] 212 

94-1 II     NoMi,  FiORENZA,  D. .  .E.    No,  No,  No  [Ac]     ....  92-93 

99-102     Dante  [IS] 93 

99-102     Dante  [IS] 93 

105-108     Dante  [IS] 104 

108-111     Ella  NoN  Noma  Dante  [Ac] 92-93 

112-114    Di  Bella  [Ac] 326-327 

112-138     Bella  E  IVI aria  Amoros A  [Ac] 326-327 

Par.  xvi. 

34    Eva  [An] 429 

Par.  xvii. 

19-21     Seme  [Ac] 19S 

Par.  xviii. 

1-12    Genio  [Ac] 354 

2-5     Dante  [IS] 354 

37-39    Dante  [Ac]      80-81 

37-48    Copio.    Ed  [Ac]     80-81 

70-81     CoMPREsi  "lo  ViDi"  [Ac] 155-156 

71-75     Dante  [IS] 158 

76-78     Dante  [IS] 158 

78-81     Dant  [IS] 158 

78     DiL,  515  [C] 155-159 

82-93     DiMosTRo  [Ac] 156-157 

86-89    Dante  [IS] i59 

93     Mater  [An] 207 

Par.  xix. 

11-12    Ed  lo  [C] 205 

40-51     Pene  [Ac] 291 

115-140    Vel  [Ac] 159-164 

124-128     lo  Dante  [IS] 163-164 

125-129    Dante  [IS] 163-164 

128-129    Mi  [Sep.  L] 163-164 

130-133     VediD...e  [Ac] 159-162 

132     Dante  [S  C] 71.  162 

132-136    Dante  [IS] 162 

13s     L'Omo  [L  S] 162-163 


482      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 

REFERENCE         CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 
Par.  XX. 

38     D.A:  ViD  [An] 204-205 

38-68      RiGUARDAVI  COSI  DaNTE  [Ac] 202-205 

40-72    Cela  Ed  [Ac] 202-203 

48-52    Dante  [IS] 203-204 

52-55     Dante  [IS] 203-204 

53-56    Dante  [IS] 203-204 

94    Celor  [Ac] 430 

94    Cor  [Ac] 430 

Par.  xxii. 

28-36    PoEMA  [Ac] 46-47 

145-154    Qui  Pleo  [Ac] 300-301 

Par.  xxiii. 

1-3     CopOLA  [Ac] 292-293 

13-24    Peremas  (Spem)  (Sperma)  [Ac] 279-280 

55-66    Peremas  (Spem)  [Ac] 285 

58-60    Pene  [Ac] 285 

61-63     Ecco  [Ac] 285-286 

64-66    Nome  [Ac] 285-286 

84-88     Bella  [IS] 328 

85-90    O  Bella  Sei  Tu  [Ac] 413-414 

91     Dante  [L  S] 75 

109-120    Si  Copola  [Ac] 293 

113-116    Dante  [Ac] 294 

128    Celor  [Ac] 429-430 

128    Cor  [Ac] 429-430 

Par.  XXV. 

28-30     Ride  [Ac] 50 

30    Dante  [S  C] 73 

70    Dante  [S  C] 74 

94-99    Peremas  Velo.    Dante  Pare  Qui  [Ac] 436 

98     Per  Se,  Dante  [Ac] 436 

130-139    Pressa  Sia  [Ac] 233 

Par.  xxvi. 

1-3     Medus  [Ac] 223 

13-22    LoQui  Ed  [Ac] 154 

17    Aldighiero     444 

43-57     Peremas  [Non]  [Acj 417 

94-105     r,  Dante  [Ac] 58 


LIST   OF    CRYPTOGRAMS  483 

REFERENCE    CRYPTOGRAM  PAGE 

103-104    r,  Dante  [Ac] 58 

133-142    Come  Pene  [Ac] 294 

134-136    Elios  [Ac] 294 

141-142    Coda  [Ac] 294 

Par.  xxvii. 

1-12    Coda  [Ac] 295 

10    Dante  [S  C] 71 

43-45    Noma  [Ac] 67-68 

43-48    Peremas  Dante  [Ac] 67-68 

Par.  xxviii. 

70    Dante  [S  C] 72 

75    Dante  [S  C] 73 

Par.  xxix. 

1-9    Noma  Bella  [Ac] 452 

12    Bioo  [T] 430 

61-75     Poema  [Ac] 48-49 

100-145     Peremas  Qui  Velo.    Dante  Si  Noma  Nel  Poema  [Ac]      420 

Par.  XXX. 

91-99    Copio  [Ac] 138-139 

95-99    lo  ViDi     139 

Par.  xxxi. 

83     Dante  [S.  C] 72 

Par.  xxxii. 

1-6    Ecco  Qui  Bella  [Ac] 452-453 

1-12    Snella  [Ac] 452 

1-18     Beatrice  Vi  Sara  Madre  [Ac] 452 

136-144    E  JVTe  [Ac] 67 

142-144    Se'  Qui,  Dante  [Ac]     67 

Par.  xxxiii. 

I     A.  D 348 

1-9    Ventre  [Ac] 348 

i-iS    Quivi  Sei,  Dante  [Ac] 348 

13-16    Bella  [IS] 328 

16-30    Elios  [Ac] 349 

28-39    Via  Per  "Ed  lo"  [Ac] 147 

31-45     Pervigilia  [Ac] 149-150 


484      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY  OF    DANTE 


reference      cryptogram  page 

46-57  Ceda  Bernardo  [Ac] 135-136 

46-48  515  [C]     136 

49-51  lo  ViDi  [IS] 136-137 

52-54  515  [C]     136 

55-57  515  [C]      136 

91-93  515  [C]      135 

100-145  PoEMA  Noma  Qui  Dante  Qua  L'Omo  [Ac] 404-406 

123-126  Dante  [IS] 107-108 

124-127  Dante  [IS] 107-108 

124-126  Sole  [Ac] 289 

125  Dante  [L  S] 106-108 

127-130  QuELLA  Circulazion  Pareva  Dagli    Occhi    Miei 

Dentro  Da  Se  [Ac] 109 

129-130  Ecco  Mi,  Dis,  Dante  Aldighiero  [An] 109-110 

133-145  Peremas  Qui  Vel.    Dante  Si  Cela  Nel  Poema  [Ac]  406 

136-145  L'Amata  [Ac] 30,  36-37 

139  Pene  [P] .-   .    .  266 

139-142  Dante  [IS] iii 

142-145  Salma  [Ac] 30-31,36-37 

143  El  Vel  [An] 444 

ACROSTICS  ON  CONSECUTIVE  FIRST  LINES  OF  CANTOS 

Inf.  i-iv.  Prunello  [Ac] 453-454 

Inf.  i-xiii.  Copio  Qui  Lo  Prunello.    Dante  [Ac]     .    .  454 

Inf.  xxxii-xxxiv.  Si  Vela  [Ac] 455 

Purg.  xxxii-xxxiii.  Dante  [Ac] 455 

Par.  i-iv.  Lavoro  Qui  Dante  [Ac] 455 

Par.  i-iv.  Loqui  [Ac] 455 

Par.  xxvi-xxviii.  Poema  [Ac] 456 

Par.  xxiv-xxix  Qui  Dante  Posa  Mano  Al  Poema  [Ac]  .    .  456 

Par.  xxx-xxxiii.  Fin.  Ave  [Ac] 457 

VITA  NUOVA 

V.  N.  xxiv.               B-Amore-Ice  [An] 346-347 

V.  N.  xxiv.               Velame  [Ac]      420 

V.  N.  XXV.                Bella  [P] 356-362 

V.  N.  XXX.                Beatrice  as  9  [C] 341-344 

V.  N.  XXXV.               Funerale  [Ac] 420-421 

V.  N.  XXXV.  Peremas    Vi    Vel.      Poema    Cela    Qui 

Dante  [Ac] 421 


INDEX 


INDEX 


A,  cryptographic  use  of,  as  Aleppe, 

303;  as  a//a,  444. 
Abecedarian  psalms,  7. 
Abraham,  K.,  ix. 
Acrostic,    defined,    398-9;    anagram- 

matic,  defined,  396-421;  forms  of, 

illustrated,  23-52. 
Adam,  36,  59,  181,  304,  384,  386,  387. 
Adonis,  375. 
Adultery,  262,  303. 
^neas,  descent  to  hell  of,  361,  374, 

458. 
Aeneid,    quoted,    359,    360;    mother 

symbolism  in,  360-1,  412. 
Aldighiera   degli  Aldighieri,   wife  of 

Cacciaguida,  119. 
Aldighieri,   form  of  D.'s  cognomen, 

119. 
Aldighiero,  form  of  D.'s  cognomen, 

109-10,  119. 
Alighiero,  D.'s  father,  119. 
Allegory,  D.C.  as,  3,458,  459;  defini- 
tion of,  461-2;  raison  d'itre  of,  11. 
Allighieri,  form  of  D.'s  cognomen,  119. 
Amor,  anagram  for  Roma  and  Maro, 

192;    Christ    as,  192,    347;    Holy 

Ghost  as,  184,  226. 
Amorosa  Visione,  8,  317-8. 
Anagram,   as   pseudonym,  9;  classic 

example  of,  Ave  Maria,  etc.  428; 

defined,  397-9. 
Anonymity,  literary,  10. 
Anonymous  allusions   in    D.    C.    as, 

referring  to  D.,  446. 
Antaeus,  309-10. 
Antictona,  242. 
Aphrodite,  375. 
Appearance  and  reality,  11-12;   130. 


Aquinas,  448-9;  his  account  of  knowl- 
edge, 461. 

Argenti,  Filippo,  189,  325,  438. 

Argus,  382-4. 

Aristotle,  446-7. 

Ark,  mother  symbolism  of,  298,  389. 

Arnaut,  Provengal  poet,  439. 

Arrow,  symbolism  of,  260. 

Arte,  as  hint  of  cryptogram,  18,  50. 

Ascent,  D.'s  of  Purgatory,  243-254; 
of  Ganymede,  458;  to  Paradise  of 
Beatrice,  254,  352-3,  371 ;  of  Christ, 
167,  458;  of  Dante,  254-67,  352-3, 
361,  371 ;  of  St.  Paul,  458. 

Asceticism,  330-1. 

Ave,  palindrome  for  Eva,  429. 

B 

Babel,  Tower  of,  244-7,  297. 

Bacon,  Francis,  vii. 

Baldwin's  Die,  Phil.  &  Psych.,  226, 
254- 

Baptism,  248,  364,  366,  388-9. 

Baptistry  of  Florence,  mother  sym- 
bolism of,  388-9. 

Bardelo,  375. 

Bathing,  symbolism  of,  35-6,  284, 
364,  366. 

Beast,  number  of,  in  Rev.,  7,  9,  116-7. 

Beatrice,  313-91;  as  Holy  Ghost, 
351;  as  mother,  341-4,  352-3;  as  a 
nine,  341-4;  as  Virgin  Mary,  341^4; 
descent  of,  373-6;  identified  with 
Bella,  viii,  336-63;  in  Mystic  Pro- 
cession, 376-87;  in  V.  N.,  324,  338, 
341-3,  346,  351-2  369-73;  not 
Beatrice  Portinari,  viii,  313,  314, 
315-21 ;  various  theories  as  to  iden- 
tity of,  313-15. 

Beatrice  Portinari,  313-21. 


I  487] 


488       THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


Beatrice,  sister  of  Roberto,  182, 

Begley,  W.,  vii,  344. 

Bella,  D.'s  mother,  322-328;  iden- 
tified with  Beatrice,  viii,  336-63; 
identified  with  Virgin  Mary,  323-4; 
overt  reference  to,  323-4;  punning 
references  to,  355,  356-63. 

Benvenuto  da  Imola,  174-5. 

Bernard,  St.,  136,  147,  334-5. 

Bible,  cryptography  in,  7,  9,  116-7. 

Bice,  17,  315-8,  346-7. 

Birth,  See  Death  and  Rebirth. 

Boccaccio,  vii,  185,  371;  Amorosa 
Visione,  8,  316-8;  Life  of  D.,  vii, 
315-322. 

Booth,  W.  S.,  vii. 

Buca  d'un  sasso,  240-1. 

Burella,  natural,  240-1. 


Cabala,  7,  116-9. 

Cacciaguida,  68,  93,  119,  195,  326-7, 
353,  438- 

Cammino  ascoso,  240-1. 

Candlesticks,  symbolism  of,  383. 

Can  Grande,  171;  D.'s  letter  to,  36, 
314,  459;  erroneously  identified  as 
DXV,  118. 

Car,  symbolism  of,  18,  378. 

Casini,  T,  vii,  46. 

Castello,  nobile,  228-30. 

Cavalcanti,  Guido,  368-9,  414-5. 

Cerberus,  217. 

Chivalric  Love,  319,  335-6. 

Christ,  as  Aleppe,  303;  as  Amor,  192, 
347;  as  four,  344;  as  incestous  son, 
38,  266,  272-3;  as  intellect,  123, 
184,  463;  as  ten,  169,  196;  D.  iden- 
tified with,  31,  123,  139,  157,  170-1, 
175,  184,  21 1-2,  226,  303-5,  324, 
339,  344,  350,  373;  eternally  be- 
gotten, 266;  in  Greek  acrostic,  6, 
95,  399;  not  mentioned  in  Inf., 
78-9;  rebirth  of,  32  (see  also  Christ 
as  incestuous  son);  symbolized  by 
fish,  306;  symbolized  by  griffon, 
387-9;  symbolized  by  sun,  34,  215, 
272-3,  349-50;  symbolized  by  sym- 
bol of  Osiris,  251 ;  symbolized  by  T, 
78-9,  347;  words  of,  to  Nicodemus, 
31-2. 


Chronicles,  cited,  389. 

Church,   mother  symbolism    of,    179, 

182,  262,  376-7. 
Cicero,  6. 

Ciotto  di  Jerusalemme,  163-4. 
Cloud,  mother  symbol,  384-5. 
Colonna,  Francesco,  8,  9,  399,  453. 
Continuous  acrostics  through  entire 

cantos,  422-7. 
Convivio,  55,  239,  242,  253,  265,  268, 

309,314,326,390-1. 
Cord,  symbolism  of,  219-20. 
Corpse,  symbolism  of,  37-8,  228,  267. 
Covert,  J.,  ix. 
Cranes,  letter-making,  16. 
Creed,  Apostles',  330,  342. 
Crista,  as  identical  rhyme,  139. 
Cross,  as  T,  78,  81,  82,  87,  loi,  177, 

1 78,  347,  365,  429;  as  X,  8r,  96,  365; 

cryptograms  in  form  of,   41,    107, 

163-4,  338;  symbol  of   Christ,    78, 

80,  loi,  251,  347,  429. 

Crucifixion,  symbolism  of,  272-3. 

Crux  ansata,  251. 

Cryptograms,  defined,  3-4;  indica- 
tions of  intention  of,  4-5,  13-4, 
23-4,  91-2,  102,  401-3;  motives  for 
use  of,  9-12,  403-4;  symbolic  use  of, 
8,  1 1-2,  loi-ii.  See  Acrostics, 
Anagrams,  Cabala,  Interior  Se- 
quences, Letter  Sequences,  Palin- 
dromes, String  Ciphers,  Telestics. 
See  also  List  of  Cryptograms. 

Cupid,  260,  362,  364. 

D 

Da,  symbol  of  D.,  152. 

Daniel,  cited,  76. 

Dante,  as  lost  and  found,  32,  loi-ii; 
identified  with  Christ,  31,  41,  93, 
108,  123,  139,  157,  170-1,  174-5, 
184,  21 1-2,  226, 303-5,  324, 339f  344. 
350,  373,  408,  432;  identified  with 
ciotlo  di  Jerusalemme,  163-4;  with 
DXV,  115-26;  with  eagle,  201; 
with  Fante,  76-7;  with  foetus, 
236-41;  with  God,  96,  106-11,  133, 
146,  161,  260;  with  intellect,  123, 
183-4,  423;  with  lonza,  182-4; 
with  Lucifer,  213-7;  with  mankind, 
42,  103,  105,  206;  with  Mente,  123, 


INDEX 


489 


183-4,  422-3;  with  Nati,  31,  103; 
with  Phoenix,  167-71;  with  Romeo, 
200-1;  with  Sperma,  226-7,  229-30, 
237-9,  252-3;  with  sun,  288;  with 
universe,  70,  102;  with  Veltro, 
3,  171-82;  love  for  his  mother, 
323-5,  328;  suggested  in  anonymous 
allusions,  204,  446;  symbolism  of 
his  journey,  37-8,  loi-ii,  227-306; 
symbolism  of  his  sleep  with  Bea^ 
trice,  36,  254,  380-7;  united  crypto- 
graphically  with  Taide,  59-60,  See 
Ad,  Di,  Dil,  Ed,  Ed  Io,  Io  Vidi, 
Vel. 

David,  204-5,  446. 

Death,  ambivalent  for  birth,  242,  272. 
See  Morte  seconda  and  Rebirth. 

Descent  to  underworld,  in  mythol- 
ogy, 231,  374,  458;  of  Beatrice, 
373-6;  of  Christ,  167,  215,  303-4, 
458;  of  D.,  227-243,  303-4;  of  Luci- 
fer, 215,  273;  of  mother,  374-5;  of 
sun,  34,  215. 

Di,  symbol  of  D.,  152. 
Dil,  symbol  of  D.,  15,  155-9. 
Dinsmore,  C.  H.,  viii. 
Dis,  city  of,  229,  231. 

Divina  Commedia,  allusion  to,  in 
V.    N.,    387;   as   allegory,    3,    458, 

459,  461-2;   as   dream,    458,    459, 

460,  461-2;  as  history,  457-8,  459; 
as  myth,  309-10,  459-60,  462-4; 
divisions  of,  10,  39-42. 

Donnelly,  I.,  5. 
Dragon,  217,  377. 

Dream,  96,  189,  253,  458,  459,  460, 
461-2;  in  Purgatory,  250,  363,  364; 
in  V.  N.,  369-73;  of  dejd  vii,  274. 

Dream-Uke  representation,  186-325. 

Durante,  66,  322. 

DVX.    See  DXV. 

DXV,  identified  with  Dante,  viii,  3, 
115-26;  identified  with  others,  116- 
8;  symbolism  of,  126,  179,  379. 


Eagle,  dream  of,  250;  guise  of  D.  and 
of  Trinity,  201-11;  symbolism  of, 
379-80. 

Earth,  as  mother,  227-8,  267-75,  3^8. 

Easter,  34,  273. 


Eating,   symbolism   of,    185,   209-10, 

217,  307,  371-2,  384. 
Ed,  symbol  of  D.,  152. 
Ed  Io,  symbol  of  D.,  145-152. 
Eden.    See  Garden  of. 
Elios,  238-9,  295,  349. 
Emotion,  corresponding  to  love  and 

Holy  Ghost,  ix,  184,  226,  463.    See 

Trinity. 
Empyrean,  the  spaceless,  263-5,  3^6. 
Enigma  forte,  12.    See  DXV. 
Eunoe,  35,  195,  199,  248,  264. 
Eve,  14,  36,  179,  181,  304,  306,  384, 

386,  387,  429,  452. 


Faith,  226. 

Falcon,  208-10. 

Family,  as  symbol  of  the  individual 
mind,  184,  225-6,  463;  as  symbol  of 
Trinity,  ix,  184,  192,  207-8,  255, 
266,  330-2,  346. 

Father,  170,  189,  268,  368-9,  386-7. 
See  Alighiero,  Argenti,  Caccia- 
guida,  Cavalcanti,  God,  Lion, 
Lucifer,  Pape  Satan,  Trinity,  Vir- 
gil. 

Faye,  E.  de,  ix. 

Feltro,  180-2. 

Fiametta,  321. 

Fire,  symbolism  of,  85,  253,  333. 

First  lines  of  consecutive  cantos, 
acrostics  on,  453-7. 

Fish,  symbolism  of,  6,  95,  226,  260, 
306,  399- 

Fleming,  W.  K.,  ix. 

Fletcher,  J.  B.,  vii,  viii. 

Fleur-de-lys,  symbolism  of,  227,  383. 

Florence,  mother  symbolism  of,  325-8. 

Face,  256. 

Foglie,  256. 

Font,  mother  symbolism  of,  388-9. 

Form,  universal,  129-164. 

Foro  d'un  sasso,  240-1. 

Four,  Christ  as,  344;  division  into, 
39-42;  groups  of  216-7;  ii^  terza 
rima,  40;  in  trinity,  40;  man  as,  344. 

Francesca,  298. 

Frazer,  J.  G.,  ix,  219,  379-80. 


490 


THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


Freud,  S.,  ix,  274. 

Freudian  psychology,  viii,  ix,  462. 


Gabriel,  236. 

Ganymede,  458. 

Garden  of  Eden,  36,  181,  210,  248, 
253.  306-310. 

Gardner,  E.  G.,  vii,  175,  n. 

Gate,  city  of  Dis,  229;  of  Hell,  194, 
224,  228, 229-30,  271,  275,  374, 423; 
of  Purgatory  proper,  348;  symbol- 
ism of,  235,  298. 

Genesis,  cited,  no,  255,  386-7. 

Geography,  D.'s  symbolical,  267-72. 

Geryon,  217-8. 

Giant,  symbolism  of,  116,  377,  379. 

"Gibberish,"  17,  244-7,  303-6. 

Giovanna,  367-8. 

Giunchi,  247. 

Gnosticism,    198,  266,  331-5,   375-6, 

438-9- 

God,  as  alpha  and  omega,  7,  444; 
as  father,  330;  as  light,  106-11; 
as  mother,  38,  330  (see  Holy 
Ghost);  D.  identified  with,  106-11; 
return  to,  38,  106-11,  390;  sun 
symbolism  of,  295,  349.  See 
Trinity. 

Gods,  mother  of  the,  328. 

Golden  Age,  symbolism  of,  307,  309. 

Grave,  symbolism  of,  37-8,  228,  267. 

Gravity,  symbolism  of  center  of, 
240. 

Grembo,  250. 

Griffon,  symbolism  of,   18,  378-81. 

Guises,  cryptographic,  see  Ad,  Di, 
DiL,  Ed,  Ed  Io,  Io  Vidi,  Vel;  sym- 
bolic, see  Giotto,  Dxv,  Eagle, 
Lonza,  Lucifer,  Liipa,  Phoenix, 
Romeo,   Statius,   Veltro,   Virgil. 

H 

Harlot,   symbolism   of,   58,   60,    116, 

179,  262,  377-8,  379,  387. 
Harpies,  233-4. 
Harrison,  J.  E.,  ix. 
Hastings,  J.,  vii,  ix.,  7,  244,  n.,  328, 

n.,  375.  n-.  386. 
Hebrews,  Gospel  of  the,  463. 


Hell,  symbolism  of,  188,  227-43,  275, 
288,  298,  361.  See  Descent  to 
underworld. 

Henry,  Emperor,  117. 

Herbert,  George,  8,  92,  n. 

Hercules,  310,  374,  458;  Pillars  of, 
symbolism  of,  267,  270,  271,  298-9. 

Hesiod,  397. 

Hirn,  Y.,  ix,  244,  n.,  258,  n.,  385,  n. 

History,  D.  C.  as,  457-8,  459;  sym- 
bolized in  Mystic  Procession,  376-7. 

Holbrook,  R.  T.,  viii,  16,  303. 

Holy  Ghost,  184,  193,  198,  200,  330, 
5,  346,  463.    See  Trinity. 

Homer,  329. 

Hope,  225-6. 

Horace,  361-2. 

Hypnerotomachia  Poliphili.    See  Col- 


I 

I,  cryptographic  use  of,  15,  16,  155, 

163-4,  169. 
IdeaUsm,  254. 
Iliad,  361. 
Incest,    33,    34,    38,    170-1,    179-80, 

199,    209-10,   216,    228,    247,   250, 

266,  268,  272-3,  274,  298,  304,  308- 

10,  352,  359-60,  364,  371-3,  374, 

380,  386,  389,  463. 
Individual,    the   human,    as    trinity, 

ix-x,  184,  463. 
Ingegno,  35,  48,  50,    140,    157,   281, 

354- 
Intellect,  Christ  and  Dante  as,  ix,  123, 

184,  226,  423,  463.    See  Trinity. 
Intention,  indications  of,  in  crypto- 
grams, 4-5,  13-4,  23-4,  91-2,    102, 

401-3. 
Interior  of  earth,  northern,  see  Hell; 

southern,  239-43. 
Interior    sequences,    4,    87-95.      See 

List  of  Cryptograms. 
Intrauterine  existence,  38,  228,  265, 

307-9.  347-52. 
Io  Vidi,  symbol  of  D.,  129-145.    See 

List  of  Cryptograms. 
Isaiah,  cited,  215. 
Isis,  375. 
Istar,  374-5. 


INDEX 


491 


J 

Jerusalem,   symbolism  of,  267-72. 

John,  gospel  of,  cited,  31-2,  33. 

Josephus,  209. 

Journey  of  D.,  symbolism  of,  31,  34, 
37,  loi-ii,  252,  273,  292,  309;  of 
Ulysses,  symbolism  of,  298-9.  See 
Parallel. 

Jung,  C.  G.,  ix. 

Juno,  359,  360,  382. 

Jupiter,  236,  244,  382. 

K 

Key,  symbolism  of,  251,   265,   298, 

306. 
King,  C.  W.,  vii,  333-4. 
Kliiber,  J.  L.,  vii. 


Lapa,  D.'s  stepmother,  323. 

Lark,  symbolism  of,  208-10. 

Latham,  C.  S.,  37,  171,  n. 

Laura,  of  Petrarca,  321. 

Lethe,  35,  248,  264. 

Letter  sequences,  74-5.     See  List  of 

Cryptograms.. 
Letter  e  mozze,  19-20,  162. 
Lia,  363-4,  368. 

Light,  river  of,  264;  symbolism  of, 
36,  106-10,  258-60,  290-1,  297,  332, 
333.    See  Sun  symbolism. 

Lily,  symbolism  of,  207,  236.  See 
Fleur-de-lys. 

Lion,  symbolism  of,  185,  188,  193, 
216,  234. 

Lithopaedion,  231. 

Logos,  208,  353. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  vii,  19. 

Lonza,  symbolism  of,  182-4,  216. 

Lost  and  found,  Dante  as,  32,  loi-i  i . 

Love,  as  Christ,  192,  347,  351;  as 
emotion,  226;  as  Holy  Ghost,  225- 
6,  351;  Beatrice  as,  347-51;  chiv- 
alric,  319,  335-6;  D.'s,  for  his 
mother,  323-5;  of  bodies  for  their 
birthplace,  309;  war  of,  362.  See 
Trinity. 

Lucan,  359,  361. 


Lucia,  217,  338,  345,  369,  374;  city  of, 
242,  268,  270. 

Lucifer,  212-7;  as  father,  303-4;  as 
triadic,  2 1 5-6 ;  identified  with  Christ, 
214-5;  with  Dante,  212-6;  with 
God,  214-5;  with  Sun,  214-5;  sin  of, 
216,  303;  sex  symbolism  of,  236-42, 
273,  303-4- 

Luke,  gospel  of,  cited,  323-4. 

Lupa,  symbolism  of,  179,  185-8, 
216. 

M 

M,  cryptographic  use  of,  16,  157-8, 
205-9. 

Macrocosm-microcosm,  241,  254-5. 

Macy,  J.,  ix. 

Mar,  pun  for  Maro,  192. 

Mar  dell'  essere,  256. 

Maria,  city  of,  242,  268,  270;  of  Boc- 
caccio, 317,  321;  of  Jerusalem, 
209-10.    See  Virgin  Mary. 

Mariolatry,  334. 

Matelda,  195,  200,  284,  364-7. 

Matthew,  gospel  of,  cited,  384. 

Me,  as  identical  rhyme,  139. 

Meanings,  allegorical,  3,  12,  18, 
314-5.  357-8,  363,  385.  459,  460, 
461-2;  dream,  459,  462;  myth, 
309-10,  459-60,  462-4, 

Mediterranean,  geographical  sym- 
bolism of,  263,  267-72. 

Medusa,  231-3,  260. 

Meleager,  85-7. 

Mercury,  236,  382. 

Messo  da  Die,  115,  235,  440. 

Mirror,    symbolism    of,    216-7,    330, 

353- 
Monte,  dilettoso,  189,  228. 
Moon,  symbolism  of,  251,  298. 
Moore,   E.,   vii,    17,   24,   46,    I16-18, 

313-5.321,322,342. 
Morte  seconda,  332-3. 

Mother,  ancient,  359,  363;  cult  of, 
328-36;  dual,  32-3,  37-9,  241-2, 
360-1;  fallen,  179-82,  376;  symbols, 
variety  of,  387-91.  See  Ark,  Bea- 
trice, Bella,  Car,  Cerberus,  Church, 
Clouds,  Earth,  Eve,  Feltro,  Flor- 
ence,    Font,     Garden     of     Eden, 


492      THE   CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


Geryon,  Giovanna,  Gods,  mother 
of,  Hell,  Holy  Ghost,  Jerusalem, 
Lia,  Lucia,  Lupa,  Maria,  Matelda, 
Medusa,  Moon,  Mountain,  Mys- 
tic rose.  Purgatory,  Puttana,  Ra- 
chel, Sea,  Selva  Oscura,  Sky, 
Statius,  Terrestrial  Paradise,  Tower 
Tree,  Virgin  Mary. 

Mountain,  of  Purgatory,  270;  sym- 
bolism, 196,  243-4,  330,  385-  See 
Monte  dilettoso. 

Myer,  I.,  ix. 

Mystic  procession,  377-87. 

Mystic  rose,  symbolism  of,  264-6,  338. 

Myth,  meaning  of,  see  Meanings; 
of  ascent  and  descent  to  abodes  of 
dead,  see  Ascent  and  Descent; 
Sun,  see  Sun  symbolism.  See  also 
Antaeus,  Meleager,  etc. 

N 

Names,  cryptograms  of  groups  of  pro- 
per, 99-101,  126, 174,  364-5.  444-53; 
numerical  value  ot,  334,  343-4.  See 
DXV. 

Nicodemus,  31,  33. 

Nimrod,  244-7. 

Nine,  Beatrice  as,  17,  341-5;  symbol- 
ism of,  169,  262,  272,  293,  327. 

Non-Italian  phrases,  cryptograms  in, 
95-99,  284,  427-44.  See  List  of 
Cryptograms. 

Norton,  C.  E.,  vii,  19,  267,  333,  357, 
n.,  358,  n. 

Number  symbolism.  See  Four,  Nine, 
Seven,  Ten,  Thirty-five,  Three. 

O 
O,  cryptographic  use  of,  169,  444. 
Odor  symbolism,  230. 
Odysseus,  see  Ulysses. 
Odyssey,  361. 
Omo,  10,  16,  205-6,  209. 
Ovid,  362,  382. 


P,  cryptographic  use  of,  17,  251-2. 

Palindrome,  192,  429. 

Paolo,  298. 

Pape  Satan,  etc.,  17,  303-6. 


Paradise,  symbolism  of,  254-67,  271. 
See  Ascent. 

Parallel,  between  female  body  and 
Earth,  227-8,  267-75;  Hell,  38, 
227-43;  Paradise,  254-67;  Purga- 
tory, 243-54;  psycho-physical,  463. 

Parnasso,  256. 

Paul,  St.,  374,  458. 

Pauly,  Encyclopaedie,  vii,  6. 

Personification,  D.'s  discussion  of, 
357-63. 

Pertugio  tondo,  240-1. 

Peschiera,  257,  260-1. 

Petrarca,  319-21. 

Phallic  symbolism,  36,  65,  85,  207, 
226,  227,  229-30,  235,  236,  237, 
239,  240,  244,  248-50,  251-2,  258- 
60,  264,  265,  266,  272,  289,  291, 
292,  295,  297,  298,  379,  381,  383, 
386. 

Phoenix,  symbolism  of,  167-71,  196, 
380. 

Plato,  446-7. 

Platonic  love,  see  Chivalric  love. 

Plautus,  6. 

Poast,  F.  M.,  ix. 

Poe,  E.  A.,  92,  n. 

Portinari,  Beatrice,  viii,  313,  314, 
315-21- 

Potence,  51,  60,  176. 

Procession,  mystic,  377-87. 

Prometheus,  170. 

Proserpine,  231,  364. 

Proverbs,  cited,  11. 

Prunicos,  333. 

Psycho-physical  parallelism,  see  Par- 
allel. 

Pun,  146,  161,  192,  206,  212,  266, 
351,  355,  356-63,  368. 

Purgatory,  symbolism  of,  240,  243- 
54,  270,  271,  272,  279,  298-9,  306. 

Puttana,  58,  60,  179,  387.  See  Har- 
lot. 

Pythagorean  concepts,  Antictona, 
242;  sacred  tetrad,  344;  transmigra- 
tion, 243,  332. 

Q 
Quest,  D.'s  journey  as  a,  loi-ii. 


INDEX 


493 


R 

Rabelais,  9. 

Rachel,  363,  388. 

Rafel  mat,  etc.,  17,  245-7. 

Rahab,  179,  262. 

Rank,  O.,  ix. 

Rebirth,  31-4,  37-8,  85-6,  168,  170-1, 
179-80,  189,  199,  209,  22J,  241, 
242,  247,  248,  277,  322,  352,  359, 
385.    See  Incest. 

Rees's  Encyclopaedia,  vii. 

Retrogression,  universal  tendency  to, 
239. 252-3,  265,  309,  390-1. 

Revelation,  cited,  7,  9,  116-7. 

Rhea,  329. 

Rhymes,  11;  identical,  139;  in  terza 
rima,  40;  perfect,  140. 

Ricklin,  F.,  ix. 

Ritrovai,  reiterative  sense  of,  274. 

River,  of  light,  264.  See  Stream  sym- 
bolism. 

Rivo,  257. 

Romeo,  200-1. 

Rose,  see  Mystic  rose. 

Royce,  J.,  463,  n. 


Sailing,  symbolism  of,  299. 

Salomon,  Emanuel  ben,  117,  118-20. 

Scartazzini,  G.  A.,  vii,  118,  274. 

Scherillo,  M.,  vii,  viii,  119,  371. 

Schermo  delta  veritade,  318-21. 

Schmidt,  Hans,  ix,  228. 

Scrittura,  18,  19,  154,  161-2. 

Sea,  symbolism  of,  219,  247,  268, 
298-9.  330. 

Seal  of  Dante,  225,  282,  chap.  viii. 

Selva  oscura,  33,  228,  274-5. 

Serpent,  symbolism  of,  250. 

Seven,  symbolism  of,  252. 

Sex  symbolism,  ix-x,  36,  181,  199,  224, 
241,248-51,260,262,266-7,271,287, 
377,  462.  See  Phallic  symbolism. 
Parallel  and  Uterine  symbolism. 

Shakespeare,  5,  321. 

Shulamite,  182,  244,  296. 

Sight  symbolism,  259-60,  266. 

Sky,  symbolism  of,  254. 


Sleep,  symbolism  of  D.'s,  36,  254, 
380-7. 

Smith,  W.  B.,  ix. 

Socrates,  446-7. 

Son  (child),  ix,  3,  14  (j?g/iMo/z),  31,  32- 
3,  76  ifante),  85,  123,  170,  175,  179, 
193,  199,  209,  210,  228,  239,  242, 
234,  255,  304,  423,  463. 

Song  of  Songs,  cited,  182,  244,  296-7. 

Sophia,  333,  375. 

Sordello,  301. 

Southard,  E.  E.,  ix. 

Sparks,  symbolism  of,  260. 

Sperber,  A.,  viii. 

Sperma,  D.  as  226-7,  229-30,  237-9, 
252-3- 

Stairway,  symbolism  of,  252,  253. 

Statius,  195-200,  447. 

Stork,  symbolism  of,  208-10. 

Stream,  symbolism  of,  219,  248,  364, 
366,  450-1. 

String  ciphers,  71-74.  See  List  of 
Cryptograms. 

Strupo,  superbo,  216,  262,  303-4. 

Styx, 231. 

Sun  symbolism,  34,  36,  42,  142,  145, 
214-5,  258,  265,  266,  268-73,  295, 
288,  295,  298,  349-50,  460. 

Sybilline  oracles,  6. 

Symbolic  guises,  see  Guises,  symbolic. 

Symbolism,  3,  18,  102,  189,  314,  395, 
461.  See  Allegory,  Dream,  Fam- 
ily, Guises,  Incest,  Myth,  Number 
symbolism,  Parallel,  Phallic  sym- 
bolism. Rebirth,  Sex  symbolism. 
Sight  symbolism.  Sun  symbolism. 
Trinity,  and  all  subjects  listed 
with  the  word  "symboHsm." 

T 

T,  as  cross,  78-9,  81,  82,  87,  loi,  177, 

178,  347,  365,  429- 
Taide,  59-60.    See  Harlot. 
Tammuz,  375. 
Taylor,  H.  O.,  ix. 
Ten,  symbolism  of,  169,  196. 
Ten-line  frame,  defined,  23,  42-3. 
Terrestrial  Paradise,  36,  252-4,  306. 
Tertullian,  227. 
Terza  rima,  10,  39-42. 


494      THE    CRYPTOGRAPHY   OF    DANTE 


Tetrad,  sacred,  344. 

Theft,  symbolism  of,  170,  189. 

Theodotus,  332. 

Theseus,  231,  458. 

Thirty-five,  symbolism  of,  157. 

Thorn,  symbolism  of,  454. 

Three,  symbolism  of,  10,  40,  42-3. 
See  Trinity. 

Torraca,  F.,  vii,  24. 

Torre,  R.  della,  viii. 

Tower,  symbolism  of,  244-7,  295-8. 

Toynbee,  P.,  vii,  46,  119,  207,  323. 

Transfiguration,  384. 

Transmigration,  332. 

Tree,  symbolism  of,  18,  379-81. 

Trinity,  ix,  123,  174,  180,  184,  192, 
193,  196-8,  199-200,  205,  207-9, 
211,  212,  215-6,  225-6,  255,  266, 
295,  330-2,  341-2,  346,  423,  463. 

Troia,  as  prostitute,  191. 

Twelfth  Night,  63,  96. 

Tyler,  E.  B.,  ix. 

U 

Ugolino,  295-8. 

Ulysses,  298-9,  374,  458. 

Underhill,  E.,  ix. 

Universal  form,  129-164. 

Universe,  36,  102,  180;  anthropo- 
morphic, 3,  254,  291,  292,  325,  333, 
395.  463;  the  image  of  God,  255. 
See  Garden  of  Eden  and  Parallel. 

Uterine  symbolism,  32,  33,  37-9,  no, 
210,  228,  231-2,  236,  240,  241,  246, 
251, 252, 253-4, 257-8, 262, 263, 265, 
269,271,273,275,  288,  293, 298, 304, 
307,  309,  324.  345.  347-54, .361,  372, 
375.    See  Intrauterine   existence. 

Uzza,  389. 

V 

Valley  of  the  Princes,  248,  250,  450. 
Veil,  18,  19,  35,  57,  67,  70,  98,  161. 
Vel,  symbol  of  Dante,  159-64. 
Veltro,  viii,  3,  126,  171-82,  216,  395. 
Venus,  360,  364;  sphere  of,  257,  262, 

263.    See  Aphrodite. 
Verba.    See  Logos. 
Verghetta,  symbolism  of,  235. 


Vernon,  W.  W.,  vii. 

Vidi,  as  identical  rhyme,  139-40. 

Villon,  Frangois,  8. 

Virgil,  as  father,  188-200,  337;  cited, 
175,  359,  360;  meeting  of,  with 
Beatrice,  374;  mother  symbolism  in 
ySwetd  of,  360-1,412-3;  prophecy  of, 
in  fourth  Eclogue,  175;  prophesies 
Veltro,  182 ;  punning referenceto,  192. 

Virgin  Mary,  as  mother  of  God,  331 ; 
associated  with  Beatrice,  338-9, 
340,  341-4,  373;  associated  with 
Bella,  246-7,  323-4,  327,  328;  asso- 
ciated with  Eve,  376,  429;  asso- 
ciated with  Holy  Ghost,  192-3, 
346,  376;  associated  with  Isis,  375; 
Christ  born  of,  32,  209,  266,  342; 
cult  of,  334-5;  grembo  di,  250,  450; 
hymn  to,  250;  in  classic  anagram, 
428;  number  symbolism  of,  344; 
place  of,  in  mystic  rose,  265,  338; 
Rahab  as  ancestress  of,  179;  rela- 
tion of  Christ  to,  373;  Shulamite  as 
type  of,  244;  spouse  of  Holy  Ghost, 
346;  symbolized  by  mountain  and 
tower,  244;  veiled  allusion  to,  as 
Maria  of  Jerusalem,  209-10;  womb 
of,  associated  with  Hell,  228.  See 
Holy  Ghost,  Mariolatry,   Trinity. 

Vita  Nuova,  10,  316,  318,  319,  320, 
322,338,341-2,346,  358,  387-8;  dis- 
cussion of  personification  in,  357-63 ; 
relation  of,  to  D.  C,  369-73,  420-1; 
symbolism  of,  369-73. 

Voltaire,  9. 

VOM,  13-4,  94. 

W 

Waite,  A.  E.,  ix. 

Water,  symbolism  of,  229,  242,  268, 
273,  302,  306,  450-1.  See  Baptism, 
Bathing,  Sea,  Stream. 

Wheel  of  Birth,  243,  332. 

Wicksteed,  P.  H.,  viii,  19. 

Will.ix,  37, 184,225-6,463.  SeeTrinity. 

Witte,  K.,  vii. 

Womb.    See  Uterine  symbolism. 

X 

X,  as  cross,  8r,  96,  365. 

Z 
Zeus,  329. 
Zohar,  118. 


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